Tom Gabbay is an author who earlier in his career studied cartooning and animation. As an animator, he contributed several segments to Sesame Street in the 1970s.
In 1981, Gabbay joined NBC as an executive, first as a director in charge of children's programming and then in charge of comedy programming (including Family Ties). Gabbay has authored three thriller novels and wrote the 1997 TV movie The Princess Stallion.