Early life

Ziegler was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Melissa Ziegler-Gisoni and Kurt Ziegler, who owned a mortgage company. She is of Polish, German and Italian descent. Her parents divorced in 2011, citing the financial and emotional toll that dance took on the family, and her mother married Greg Gisoni in 2013. Ziegler has been an active member of the Abby Lee Dance Company since the age of two. She trains in tap, ballet, lyrical, contemporary, acro, jazz and aerial dance. Maddie Ziegler has a younger sister, Mackenzie (b. June 4, 2004), a dancer and singer who appears with her on Dance Moms, two older half-brothers from her father's previous marriage, and two older step-siblings from the previous marriage of her step-father, Greg Gisoni, a vice-president at Westinghouse Electric Company.

Ziegler attended Sloan Elementary School until 2013, when she left to be homeschooled. Ziegler and her family have long lived in Murrysville, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, and now split their time between Murrysville and Los Angeles.

Career

Ziegler has won numerous titles at regional, state and national dance competitions, including the 2014 Dancers Choice Award for Favorite Dancer 17 & Under. In 2010, Ziegler performed for Paula Abdul's reality television program Live to Dance, but the program was canceled before her performance aired. In 2011, eight-year-old Ziegler and her mother were given roles on the first season of Lifetime's Dance Moms, a reality show about the young dancers on Abby Lee Miller's Abby Lee Dance Company Elite Competition Team and their often quarrelsome mothers. Ziegler continued to appear on the show alongside her mother and younger sister, Mackenzie, until 2016, their last season on the show. In 2013, Ziegler made guest appearances on a spin-off program, Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition. Dance Moms helped to make Ziegler "one of the most famous dancers in the entertainment world currently. ... other dancers to pursue their dreams with originality and grace."

In 2012, Ziegler landed her first professional acting job, portraying the character Young Deb on an episode of the Lifetime series Drop Dead Diva. In 2014, Ziegler appeared as a guest star in Episode 34 of HitStreak Summer, a made-for-mobile series. She continued her acting career in 2015 with guest spots on the Disney Channel series Austin & Ally and ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars. In January 2016, she guest starred in the episode "Ballet and the Beasts" on Nickelodeon's Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn. Ziegler has been cast in a forthcoming feature film, The Book of Henry and is set to voice a character in the animated film Ballerina. She has also been cast in a film written and to be directed by Sia, titled Sister. Ziegler expects to do more acting. She told Hunger magazine in 2016: "I don’t want to always be seen as a reality TV person. I want people to see that there’s more that I can do. ... his year acting is going to be my focus."

Ziegler has appeared in music videos for such artists as Alexx Calise, Sia and Todrick Hall. She gained wide notice, at the age of 11, by starring in the 2014 video for Sia's song "Chandelier", which won the ARIA Music Award for Best Video and received nominations at the 2014 MTV Video Music Awards for Video of the Year and Best Choreography, winning the latter. It was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Music Video in 2015. The video has received more than 1.2 billion views on YouTube, and it was, at one point, the 13th most viewed YouTube video of all time. In January 2015, Ziegler starred with Shia LaBeouf in "Elastic Heart", another Sia video, which has accumulated more than 600 million YouTube views. The video "courted controversy and plaudits in equal measure", with some commentators perceiving it as having pedophilic undertones due to the relative ages of the dancers. Sia explained that the two dancers represented "warring 'Sia' self states", but she nevertheless apologized on Twitter to anyone who was offended. Later in 2015, Ziegler starred in "Big Girls Cry" to complete her trilogy of videos from Sia's album 1000 Forms of Fear. This video has received more than 100 million views. After the release of "Chandelier", Ziegler danced to Sia's vocals on several television shows, including The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Dancing with the Stars, Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Saturday Night Live, as well as at the Hollywood Bowl. By the end of 2015, Ziegler had performed with Sia on the Ellen DeGeneres Show three times. She also performed to "Chandelier", alongside Sia and Kristen Wiig, at the 2015 Grammy Awards. In 2016, Ziegler starred in a fourth Sia video, "Cheap Thrills", from the album This Is Acting. Billboard called the video "captivating" and commented that Ziegler and her two supporting dancers seemed "to blend as one". A Teen Vogue reviewer wrote that Ziegler "delivers another powerful performance". The "Chandelier" and "Elastic Heart" videos were both selected as part of PopSugar's 2016 list of "25 of the Best Dance Videos of the Last Decade".

Ziegler has modeled for such fashion lines as Glitzy Girl, Purple Pixies, Capezio, including their Betsey Johnson line, Target and Ralph Lauren. She has also been featured on numerous magazine covers and in fashion editorials for Kode, Schön! Magazine, Elle, Dance Spirit, Nylon, Vs., Seventeen, Harper's Bazaar, People, Dazed, Cosmopolitan, i-D, Billboard, Teen Vogue, Stella, Maniac, Vanity Fair Italia, Flaunt and Paper. At the 2015 New York Fashion Week, she acted as a correspondent for Elle. In 2014, Ziegler and her sister released a fashion line, The Maddie & Mackenzie Collection, through Mod Angel. Ziegler has an active social media presence, with more than 6 million Instagram followers, over 1 million Twitter followers and over 500,000 followers on Facebook. Videos of her dancing had been viewed more than 1 billion times on YouTube by May 2015, and by March 2016, she had accumulated more than 2 billion views on YouTube.

Ziegler appeared as the featured dancer in the ABC TV special The Wonderful World of Disney: Disneyland 60 in February 2016, during the song "Part of Your World", sung by Kelsea Ballerini and choreographed by Travis Wall. A Huffington Post reporter called the number "stunning and graceful". In April 2016, six of her pre-taped performances were projected onto the big screens during Sia's Coachella set, and Ziegler appeared live with Sia at YouTube's Brandcast event in New York City. In May, Ziegler appeared on the season finale of The Voice with Sia, dancing to "Cheap Thrills". Ziegler is set to be a judge on So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation, a competition for dancers from ages 8 to 13, which premieres in May 2016.

Philanthropy

In 2012, Ziegler, along with her mother and sister, partnered with Starlight Children's Foundation to help raise awareness for chronically ill youth. Ziegler stated that she enjoys dedicating her time to helping other children, and that it is a rewarding experience. In 2016, Ziegler and her sister made a public service announcement for DoSomething.org's Birthday Mail campaign, which enables people to send homemade birthday cards to children living in homeless shelters.

Reputation and accolades

Billboard called Ziegler's work in "Chandelier" "a dazzling dance performance", while The Guardian commented that she "dances with such impressive flexibility". Rolling Stone thought that her "crisp moves and theatrical mugging were a great fit for Ryan Heffington's imaginative choreography" and praised her "charisma that makes this video mesmerizing: Her dancing makes your memory tingle". Dazed magazine said that "Ziegler interprets the song’s lyrics into something that is deranged, isolated, manic and profound." People magazine called her "a super-human graceful alien sent from Planet Talented to make us mere mortals look really clumsy". In 2015, a feature in The Huffington Post praised Ziegler's artistry:

Her ... jétés and pirouettes juxtapose self-containment with a sort of reckless abandon. But it is her face ... that truly captivates her audience thanks to the tantalizing allure of catharsis through art. work ethic, not to mention her evident love for the art, has made her relentlessly relevant. She has something to say with her performances, whether in a music video for Sia or in a solo at nationals. Her technique is lovely, especially for a 12-year-old. She has stretched knees, pointed feet, and arms that float on clouds, her fingers perfectly placed. But still more important is her virtuosity, her connection with the public. She tells a narrative that resonates with the viewer, whether portraying a scorned lover or a werewolf. This maturity is astounding for a preteen - she just gets it. She's meant to perform, meant to communicate with people. She has defied the odds of Generation Z's competitive, egocentric mentality to make her career about the work, not the celebrity.

Ziegler was named by Time magazine as one of the "30 most influential teens of 2015". She is also on the Harpers Bazaar 2015 list of "19 Rising Style Icons Aged 19 and Under" and won a 2016 People's Choice Award. She has been nominated for a 2016 Shorty Award.

Videography

Filmography

Title	Year	Role	Notes	Ref.
Lucky Thirteen	2015	Herself	Short dance film by i-D, starring Ziegler, celebrating turning 13; voiceover by Chloë Sevigny reading from Dear Diary by Lesley Arfin
The Book of Henry	2016	Christina Sickleman	Post-production
Ballerina		Unknown	Post-production, Voice role
Sister		Unknown	Pre-production

Television

Key

•	Denotes acting credits

Title	Year	Role	Network	Notes	Ref.
Live to Dance	2010	Herself	CBS	Episode did not air
Dance Moms	2011-2016		Lifetime	Main cast (136 episodes)
The View	2012	Performer	ABC	Dance "A Child Is Born" (Season 15, Ep. 110)
Drop Dead Diva •		Young Deb	Lifetime	Guest, Episode "Lady Parts"
The View	2013	Performer	ABC	Dance "The Last Text", episode dated February 20, 2013
Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition			Lifetime	2 Episodes
The Ellen DeGeneres Show	2014		NBCUniversal	Sia: "Chandelier" (Season 11, Ep. 160)
Jimmy Kimmel Live!		Herself; Dancer	ABC	Sia: "Chandelier"; Ziegler teaches hosts "Chandelier" dance (Season 12, Ep. 95)
Dancing with the Stars		Performer		Sia: "Chandelier", with Allison Holker (Season 19, Ep. 4)
Saturday Night Live	2015	Performer	NBC	Sia: "Elastic Heart" (Season 40, Ep. 11)
The Ellen DeGeneres Show			NBCUniversal	Sia: "Elastic Heart" (Season 12, Ep. 93)
57th Annual Grammy Awards			CBS	Sia: "Chandelier" with Kristen Wiig
Austin & Ally •		Shelby Hayden	Disney Channel	Guest, Season 4, Ep. 5 "Homework and Hidden Talents"
Dancing with the Stars		Performer	ABC	(Season 20, Ep. 9)
Pretty Little Liars •		Creepy Dancer	ABC Family	Guest, Season 6, Ep. 5 "She's No Angel"
The View		Performer	ABC	Dance "Together We Stand" (Season 19, Ep. 14)
The Ellen DeGeneres Show			NBCUniversal	Sia: "Alive" (Season 13, Ep. 59)
Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn •	2016	Eiffel	Nickelodeon	"Ballet and the Beasts" (Season 2, Ep. 14)
The Wonderful World of Disney: Disneyland 60		Performer	ABC	Kelsea Ballerini: "Part of Your World"
The Voice		Performer	NBC	Sia: "Cheap Thrills" (Season 10 finale)
So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation		Judge	Fox	Upcoming

Music videos

Title	Year	Artist	Notes	Ref.
"It's Like Summer"	2011	LUX	Supporting
"Cry"	2012	Alexx Calise	Lead
"Summer Love Song"		Brooke Hyland	Supporting
"It's a Girl Party"	2014	Mack Z
"Freaks Like Me"		Todrick Hall	Supporting, vocals
"Chandelier"		Sia	Lead ARIA Music Award for Best Video MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography Nom—MTV Video Music Award for Video of the Year Nom—Grammy Award for Best Music Video.
"Shine"		Mack Z	Supporting
"Elastic Heart"	2015	Sia	Lead, alongside Shia LaBeouf Nom—MTV Video Music Award for Best Female Video
"Big Girls Cry"			Lead
"Wear Em Out"		Kendall K	Assistant Choreographer
"Cheap Thrills"	2016	Sia	Lead, alongside two male dancers

Commercials

Company and product	Year	Featured song(s)	Description	Ref.
Target blue jeans	2015	ABC (Tori Kelly cover)	"Back to School 2015: Jeans Jam". Ziegler and others dancing in Target jeans. The commercial had 1,092 national TV airings.
WowWee snap pets		None	Ziegler and her sister take pictures of themselves with the mini Bluetooth cameras.
Capezio	2016		"Dance In You". Zielger stars as a disruptive force for self-expression in a ballet class.

Awards and nominations

Year	Award	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
2013	Industry Dance Awards	Dancers Choice Awards Favorite Dancer	N/A	Nominated
2014	Industry Dance Awards	Dancers Choice Awards Favorite Dancer 17 & Under		Won
2015	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Dancer		Nominated
	Industry Dance Awards	Dancers Choice Awards Favorite Dancer 17 & Under		Nominated
2016	People's Choice Awards	DailyMail.com Seriously Popular Award		Won
	Shorty Awards	Best In Dance		Nominated

[ Source: Wikipedia ]