Maddie Ziegler

Ziegler began ballet lessons at age two and joined the Abby Lee Dance Company at age four. She trained in tap, ballet, lyrical, contemporary, acro and jazz, winning titles at regional, state and national competitions, including the 2014 Dancers Choice Award for Favorite Dancer 17 & Under.

In 2011, she appeared with her mother, Melissa Ziegler-Gisoni, on the first season of Lifetime's reality series Dance Moms. She remained on the show alongside her younger sister, Mackenzie Ziegler, through 2016 and became one of its standout performers. Ziegler also made guest appearances on Abby's Ultimate Dance Competition and performed on Paula Abdul's Live to Dance in 2010.

Ziegler gained wide attention at age 11 when she starred in Sia's 2014 music video for "Chandelier." Sia discovered her through Dance Moms, and the video won the ARIA Music Award for Best Video and the MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography. Ziegler later appeared in Sia's "Elastic Heart," alongside Shia LaBeouf, and in "Big Girls Cry," completing a trilogy of videos connected to Sia's album 1000 Forms of Fear.

Her collaboration with Sia continued through the videos "Cheap Thrills," "The Greatest," "Thunderclouds," "No New Friends" and "Together." The videos featuring her dancing have accumulated more than six billion views on YouTube. She also performed with Sia on programs including The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Saturday Night Live and the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, and joined the Nostalgic for the Present Tour in 2016 and 2017.

Ziegler's first professional acting role was Young Deb in the Lifetime series Drop Dead Diva in 2012. She later appeared in Austin & Ally, Pretty Little Liars and Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn. She voiced Camille in the animated film Leap! and made her feature-film debut as Christina Sickleman in The Book of Henry in 2017.

Her subsequent film roles included the title character in Sia's musical film Music, Mia in The Fallout and Velma in Steven Spielberg's West Side Story, all released in 2021. She played Lindy in Fitting In, Ruthie in My Old Ass and Claire in the short film Kodar: The Primordial God of Light and Ether. She was also cast as Bones in the 2026 action film Pretty Lethal.

Ziegler has modeled for or represented brands including Clean & Clear, Capezio, Target, Ralph Lauren and Tiffany & Co. She appeared on magazine covers and in editorials for publications such as Vogue, Elle, Seventeen, Harper's Bazaar, Cosmopolitan and Teen Vogue. In 2014, she and Mackenzie released The Maddie & Mackenzie Collection, and she launched the MaddieStyle clothing line in 2016.

In 2017, Ziegler released the memoir The Maddie Diaries, which became a New York Times Best Seller. She also wrote the middle-grade novel trilogy The Audition (2017), The Callback (2018) and The Competition (2019). Her other projects have included collaborations with Morphe Cosmetics, Fabletics and American Eagle Outfitters.

Ziegler and her family partnered with the Starlight Children's Foundation in 2012 to raise awareness for chronically ill youth. She and Mackenzie later supported DoSomething.org's Birthday Mail campaign for children living in homeless shelters, and Ziegler performed at the Dizzy Feet Foundation gala to raise funds for dance education and scholarships.

She has also partnered with Dancers Against Cancer, appeared in an ASPCA adoption campaign and participated in a charity appearance on Celebrity Family Feud for My Friend's Place, which provides meals for homeless youth in Los Angeles. Ziegler was named to Time magazine's list of the 30 most influential teens from 2015 through 2017 and was included in the 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30 list in Hollywood and Entertainment.