Born in the city of Ipoh on 22 March 1973, she is the youngest of four children of William Stanley Walker Davidson (Salim Davidson), an Englishman and his ethnic Malay wife of mixed Arab and Thai descent, Sharifah Azaliah binti Syed Omar Shahabudin who is from Alor Setar, Kedah. She is also an extended member of Kedah Royal Family on her maternal side and has three elder brothers. Her father is a prominent lawyer in Perak and Kuala Lumpur.
Zara, who has a strong interest in foreign languages, studied at SMK Convent Ipoh and represented her school in squash and tennis from 1988 to 1990. She also represented Perak in swimming between 1981 and 1987.
After completing her A-Levels at Prime College in 1992, she left for the United Kingdom to study chemical engineering at the University of Nottingham and graduated with first class honours in July 1995. She also won the top student award for her final-year project.
Coincidentally her father-in-law, the late Sultan Azlan Shah, read law at the same university and was conferred the Bachelor of Laws degree in 1953 before being admitted to the English Bar in 1954.