David Zippel is a lyricist and director. His lyrics have won him the Tony Award, two Academy Award nominations, two Grammy Award nominations, and three Golden Globe Award nominations. His songs appear on over twenty-five million CDs around the world, and have been recorded by many great singers including Stevie Wonder, Christina Aguilera, Mel Tormé, Ricky Martin, Cleo Laine, Barbara Cook and Nancy LaMott. He is also known for respectively writing the songs to Disney's Hercules (1997) and Mulan (1998) with Alan Menken and Matthew Wilder.
Cy Coleman and his musical, "City of Angels" at the Marriott Theatre in Chicago, Illinois was nominated for a 2015 Joseph Jefferson Equity Award for Best Large Musical Production.
Zippel was never officially credited for collaborating with Phil Collins in writing the songs for Disney's Tarzan (1999). Collins did all of the songwriting for that animated film by himself.