diff --git a/PYTHON-MANIFEST.in b/PYTHON-MANIFEST.in
index 02bd9b5229415..52ef1aba5b33d 100644
--- a/PYTHON-MANIFEST.in
+++ b/PYTHON-MANIFEST.in
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ graft src/python/grpcio/tests
 graft src/core
 graft include/grpc
 graft third_party/boringssl
+graft third_party/zlib
 include src/python/grpcio/commands.py
 include src/python/grpcio/grpc_core_dependencies.py
 include src/python/grpcio/README.rst
diff --git a/build.yaml b/build.yaml
index c05dde812e01a..500ec855ae409 100644
--- a/build.yaml
+++ b/build.yaml
@@ -2636,3 +2636,4 @@ python_dependencies:
   - grpc
   - gpr
   - boringssl
+  - z
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 63b56f3532799..c54ac2212977c 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -45,6 +45,7 @@
 PYTHON_STEM = './src/python/grpcio'
 CORE_INCLUDE = ('./include', '.',)
 BORINGSSL_INCLUDE = ('./third_party/boringssl/include',)
+ZLIB_INCLUDE = ('./third_party/zlib',)
 
 # Ensure we're in the proper directory whether or not we're being used by pip.
 os.chdir(os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__)))
@@ -75,9 +76,9 @@
 CYTHON_EXTENSION_MODULE_NAMES = ('grpc._cython.cygrpc',)
 
 EXTENSION_INCLUDE_DIRECTORIES = (
-    (PYTHON_STEM,) + CORE_INCLUDE + BORINGSSL_INCLUDE)
+    (PYTHON_STEM,) + CORE_INCLUDE + BORINGSSL_INCLUDE + ZLIB_INCLUDE)
 
-EXTENSION_LIBRARIES = ('z', 'm',)
+EXTENSION_LIBRARIES = ('m',)
 if not "darwin" in sys.platform:
     EXTENSION_LIBRARIES += ('rt',)
 
diff --git a/src/python/grpcio/grpc_core_dependencies.py b/src/python/grpcio/grpc_core_dependencies.py
index 66a55ef3e58d0..98ab1ff7f0e84 100644
--- a/src/python/grpcio/grpc_core_dependencies.py
+++ b/src/python/grpcio/grpc_core_dependencies.py
@@ -517,4 +517,19 @@
   'third_party/boringssl/ssl/t1_enc.c',
   'third_party/boringssl/ssl/t1_lib.c',
   'third_party/boringssl/ssl/tls_record.c',
+  'third_party/zlib/adler32.c',
+  'third_party/zlib/compress.c',
+  'third_party/zlib/crc32.c',
+  'third_party/zlib/deflate.c',
+  'third_party/zlib/gzclose.c',
+  'third_party/zlib/gzlib.c',
+  'third_party/zlib/gzread.c',
+  'third_party/zlib/gzwrite.c',
+  'third_party/zlib/infback.c',
+  'third_party/zlib/inffast.c',
+  'third_party/zlib/inflate.c',
+  'third_party/zlib/inftrees.c',
+  'third_party/zlib/trees.c',
+  'third_party/zlib/uncompr.c',
+  'third_party/zlib/zutil.c',
 ]