Madison Nicole Ziegler is an American actress and dancer. She was initially known for appearing in Lifetime’s reality show Dance Moms from 2011 (at age 8) until 2016. From 2014, she gained wider recognition for starring in a series of music videos by Sia, beginning with “Chandelier” and “Elastic Heart“, which have in total attracted more than 5 billion views on YouTube. Ziegler has appeared in films, television shows, concerts, advertisements and on magazine covers. She was included by Time magazine on its list of the “30 most influential teens” in each year from 2015 to 2017.
Years active: 2011-present
Born age: 30 September 2002, 22 years old and 0 months, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States
Sun Sign: Libra
Hair Color: Dark Brown
Eye Color: Blue
Height: 5’7″ – 1.70 m
Measurements: 34-24-34 in – 87-61-87 cm
Bra size: 34B US – 75B EU
Ziegler was a judge on the 2016 season of So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation, toured with Sia in North America and Australia in 2016 and 2017 and has given dance tours with her sister, Mackenzie. Her 2017 memoir, The Maddie Diaries, was a New York Times Best Seller. Her film roles include Camille Le Haut in the animated film Ballerina (2016), Christina Sickleman in The Book of Henry (2017), the title role in Music (2021), Mia in the high school drama The Fallout (2021) and Velma in Steven Spielberg‘s 2021 West Side Story. Her social media presence includes an Instagram account with more than 13 million followers.
Early life and education
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 when she was six years old, and her mother married Greg Gisoni in 2013. Ziegler began taking ballet lessons at the age of two and joined the Abby Lee Dance Company at age four, where she trained in tap, ballet, lyrical, contemporary, acro, jazz and aerial dance. Ziegler has a younger sister, Mackenzie, a singer and dancer who appeared 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 stepfather, Greg Gisoni, a vice president at Westinghouse Electric Company.
Ziegler attended Sloan Elementary School in Murrysville, near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, until 2013, when she left to be homeschooled. Ziegler was raised in Murrysville, but as a teenager she began to work and spend most of her time in Los Angeles. From early 2017 to mid-2018, Ziegler dated Australian teenager Jack Kelly, the son of former New York Yankees infielder Pat Kelly. Since 2019 she has been dating singer-songwriter Eddie Benjamin.
Career
2011–2016: Dance Moms and Mack Z
Ziegler first appeared on television in 2011 on Lifetime‘s reality dance show Dance Moms, alongside her mother and sister. In 2016, the Zieglers left the show after six seasons to pursue other projects. Ziegler also appeared on Dance Moms’ sister shows Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition and Abby’s Studio Rescue.
In 2014, Ziegler released her debut album titled Mack Z, which she also used as a stage name for singing appearances. The album peaked at #1 on the iTunes pop charts, as well as #7 on iTunes’ albums sales chart across all genres. The music video for the album’s lead single, “Girl Party”, also reached #1 on the iTunes pop chart. The video of the single has been viewed more than 80 million times. Later that year, her videos for “Shine” and “Christmas All Year Long” premiered. She continued to release singles and videos as Mack Z in 2015 and 2016. In 2014, Ziegler and her sister released a limited edition fashion line, The Maddie & Mackenzie Collection, through Mod Angel.
In 2015, Ziegler made her acting debut on Nickelodeon‘s sitcom Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn and appeared in a WowWee commercial alongside her sister. She returned to Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn in January 2017 in the episode “Keeping Up with the Quadashians”. Also in 2015, she walked the Polo Ralph Lauren Runway in New York City and appeared in an ad campaign video for Glamour Magazine.
2016–2017: Music and touring
In November 2016, Ziegler released her first single under her full name, a duet with singer Johnny Orlando, titled “Day & Night”. The duet’s music video was released on December 21, 2016, and has been viewed more than 24 million times. In 2017–2018, Ziegler and Orlando presented their Day & Night Tour throughout North America and the UK. Her 2017 video “Breathe” has been viewed more than 45 million times, and the video of her 2018 duet with Orlando, “What If”, has been viewed more than 60 million times.
In 2016, she and her sister were the faces of Clean & Clear’s fall back-to-school campaign. Ziegler was the face of Polo Ralph Lauren’s children’s spring 2016 collection and was named a brand ambassador for girls’ fashion line Emily West in 2017. In 2016, Ziegler collaborated with TurnBoard to release the Kenzie Ziegler TurnBoard, a turning practice tool for dancers. In 2017 and 2018, Ziegler collaborated on dance-inspired activewear clothing lines with tween retailer Justice. Justice also collaborated with her on a video of her song, “Teamwork”, a back-to-school social media campaign with an anti-bullying theme, to promote the line. Later that year, Ziegler released a tee-shirt line called Tee4Too, and, with FanJoy in 2019, she released a line of sweatshirts and tee-shirts.
Ziegler and her sister conducted a dance workshop tour of Australia in January 2017. Ziegler is featured in a 2017 dance advertisement for General Electric. They conducted another dance workshop tour of Australia and New Zealand in mid-2018.
2018–present: Total Eclipse and Dancing with the Stars Juniors
From 2018 to 2020, Ziegler starred as Cassie, a teenage girl coping with unpopularity, in the high school drama series Total Eclipse on the Brat TV digital network. She was an executive producer for the show. She also co-starred as the same character in the film Brat Holiday Spectacular (2018). In February 2018, Ziegler and her sister appeared on The Slow Mo Guys YouTube channel. She appeared on the cover of the April/May 2018 issue of Girls’ Life magazine. Ziegler released a self-help book in May 2018, titled Kenzie’s Rules for Life: How to be Happy, Healthy, and Dance to Your Own Beat, “a collection of inspirational, upbeat lessons for kids learning to navigate life.” The book ranked No. 7 on the Publishers Weekly best-seller list for juvenile non-fiction. In fall 2018, Ziegler launched her own cosmetics line, “Love, Kenzie”.
Ziegler was a contestant on Dancing with the Stars: Juniors in 2018, reaching the finals. On one episode of this show she danced together with her sister for the first time on television since Dance Moms. On November 20, 2018, Ziegler released her second studio album, Phases. One of the singles on the album, “Wonderful”, was written by Sia, and Ziegler premiered the song on Dancing with the Stars. In December 2018, Ziegler starred as Dorothy in a holiday stage pantomime adaptation, The Wonderful Winter of Oz, in Pasadena, California. In mid-2019, Ziegler signed with Arista Records and toured the US as the warm-up act for PrettyMuch. She stars as the title character in an animated film, released in the US in November 2019 with the American title Ice Princess Lily, about an ice princess who befriends a dragon to defeat the evil snowman who rules her land.
Ziegler and her sister were guest judges in 2020 on the Quibi dance competition show Floored. She duetted with Sia on her song “Exhale”, released in June 2020. In 2020–2021, Ziegler competed on The Masked Singer spin-off The Masked Dancer as “Tulip”, finishing in third place. In 2023, she and her sister launched a back-to-school fashion collection with American Eagle Outfitters.
Other activities, 2012–present
Acting
In 2012, Ziegler’s first professional acting job was 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. She returned to Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn in January 2017 in the episode “Keeping Up with the Quadashians”.
Ziegler voiced the character Camille in the animated film, Ballerina (2016), released in the US in 2017 as Leap!,> and played Christina in the feature film The Book of Henry (2017). Colin Trevorrow, the director of The Book of Henry, told Entertainment Weekly that Ziegler “is extraordinarily capable. … She finds whatever emotion she needs to dial in very quickly. No one taught her how to do that she just knows.” A reviewer for Santa Monica Daily Press wrote that, in The Book of Henry, “Ziegler … does a wonderful job with a character forced to hide her pain”. In 2019, she narrated a tribute film about her friend Simone Biles for BBC Sport. Ziegler co-starred as the title character in a musical film written and directed by Sia, titled Music, released in February 2021. Chris Willman, in Variety, called Ziegler’s performance as a non-verbal autistic teenager “not always credible” but commented that she had “no limitations in … dancing up a storm”. Although she received the 2021 Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress for the role, she received several favorable reviews.
Ziegler co-stars in the high school drama film The Fallout, which premiered in March 2021 at South by Southwest, where it won the Grand Jury Prize in the Narrative Feature Film Competition. It was released on HBO Max in January 2022> and in theatres where HBO Max is not available.> Ziegler’s performance as the popular but lonely Mia was called “stoic yet sensitive and vulnerable”, “a staggering performance” and “astounding … fully realized and complex”. She plays Velma in Steven Spielberg‘s 2021 version of West Side Story and has been cast in the leading role, Lindy, in the upcoming film Bloody Hell, written and directed by Molly McGlynn.
Modeling, endorsements and fashion
Ziegler has modeled for, or represented, such brands as Clean & Clear, Capezio, including their Betsey Johnson line, Target, Ralph Lauren, and Tiffany & Co. She has also been featured on numerous magazine covers and in fashion editorials for Schön!, Elle, Dance Spirit, Nylon, Vs., Seventeen, Harper’s Bazaar, People, Dazed, Cosmopolitan, i-D, Billboard, Teen Vogue, Stella, Maniac, Vanity Fair Italia, Flaunt, Paper and Galore.
Ziegler and her sister released a fashion line, The Maddie & Mackenzie Collection in 2014. At the 2015 New York Fashion Week, Ziegler acted as a correspondent for Elle. She launched a casual fashion line, MaddieStyle, for girls and juniors, in 2016. In 2017, she appeared as a guest judge in an episode of Project Runway and appeared on the cover of Sia’s 2017 album Everyday is Christmas. In 2018 Ziegler collaborated with Sia on a lipstick, VIVA GLAM Sia, to benefit the M.A.C. AIDS Fund. Ziegler has a make-up collaboration with Morphe Cosmetics and a fashion collaboration with Fabletics.
Dancing and dance judging
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 2016, Ziegler appeared on the season finale of The Voice with Sia, dancing to “Cheap Thrills”. The following month, she starred in another Todrick Hall video, “Taylor in Wonderland”, based on Alice in Wonderland, dancing to a mash-up of Taylor Swift songs. Also in June, Ziegler joined Fox‘s So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation, a television competition for dancers, ages 8 to 14, where she was one of the judges and a guest performer, and danced at Sia’s concert at Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Colorado. In September 2016, Ziegler performed with Sia at the launch of Apple‘s iPhone 7 and at the iHeartRadio Music Festival.
She joined Sia on the singer’s “Nostalgic for the Present Tour” from September to November 2016. Ziegler and her sister conducted a dance workshop tour of Australia in January 2017. In March 2017, Ziegler performed at the Dubai World Cup with Sia. In September, Ziegler danced to Sia’s song “Rainbow“, from the soundtrack to My Little Pony: The Movie, dressed in a wig and outfit that simulated the look of Sia’s character in the film. She again performed with Sia on a mini-tour of Australasia in November and December 2017, and later in December, she and Sia returned to the Ellen show to perform Sia’s song “Snowman”. Ziegler and her sister conducted another dance workshop tour of Australia and New Zealand in July 2018 and in the UK in 2019. In July 2019, Ziegler performed at the Fuji Rock Festival with Sia in Japan. She and her sister were guest judges in 2020 on the Quibi dance competition show Floored.
Writing and social media
Ziegler wrote the foreword to Abby Lee Miller’s 2014 memoir, Everything I Learned about Life, I Learned in Dance Class. Ziegler interviewed her friend Millie Bobby Brown for a cover article in the November 2016 issue of Interview magazine. In 2017, she released her own memoir, The Maddie Diaries,< which became a New York Times Best Seller. Ziegler also wrote a trilogy of novels for middle-grade readers. The series centers on a 12-year-old dancer, Harper, whose family relocates to a new state, as she negotiates the pre-teen challenges of making new friends while earning her place on a competitive dance team. The first novel, The Audition, was released in 2017, The Callback was released in 2018, and The Competition followed in 2019.
Ziegler has an active social media presence, with more than 13 million Instagram followers,< over 1.3 million Twitter followers and over 3 million followers on Facebook. Videos of her dancing have accumulated more than five billion total views on YouTube. Her YouTube channel has more than 3.5 million subscribers.
Philanthropy
In 2012, Ziegler, along with her mother and sister, partnered with Starlight Children’s Foundation to help raise awareness for chronically ill youth. 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. The same organization placed the Ziegler sisters on their 2016 list of charitable young celebrities. Ziegler also performed with Travis Wall at Nigel Lythgoe‘s Dizzy Feet Foundation gala in 2016 to raise funds for dance education programs for low-income children and scholarships for talented students at dance schools in the U.S.
Since 2016, Ziegler has partnered with Dancers Against Cancer, appearing in public service announcements to raise awareness and funding for people battling cancer. She starred in a 2017 ASPCA Public service announcement, set to Sia’s song “Puppies Are Forever“, to encourage people to adopt shelter and rescue dogs. In 2018, Ziegler teamed up with Sia and MAC Cosmetics, with an ad, choreographed to Sia’s song “Helium“, for a lipstick with all proceeds to benefit the company’s AIDS Fund. She appeared on Celebrity Family Feud on July 7, 2019, together with her sister, mother, aunt and dancer Charlize Glass, playing for “My Friend’s Place”, where they have volunteered in the past, which provides meals for homeless youth in Los Angeles.
Reputation and accolades
Reviews called Ziegler’s work in “Chandelier” “a dazzling dance performance” (Billboard magazine); commented that she “dances with such impressive flexibility” (The Guardian); 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” (Rolling Stone); and said that she “interprets the song’s lyrics into something that is deranged, isolated, manic and profound” (Dazed magazine). People magazine joked that she is “a super-human graceful alien sent from Planet Talented to make us mere mortals look really clumsy”. A 2015 feature in The Huffington Post praised her 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. [Ziegler’s] 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.
Ballet choreographer Troy Schumacher told New York magazine in 2016: “She has, fascinatingly, really created her own world of dance. When we talk about great dancers, it’s definitely a persona that leaves a lasting impression – it’s not necessarily the most technically perfect dancer. She’s only 13, but there’s a strong sense of personality that comes through in her movement that is somewhat iconic.” Billboard‘s Jason Lipshutz wrote that Ziegler’s live participation in Sia’s Nostalgic for the Present Tour “transforms a staged affair into a live one, and a great lineup into an indispensable arena experience” and that she “possesses an astounding control of her physicality. … [Her] presence adds a mischievous energy, as if replicated movements can’t capture the heart behind those wide eyes and deranged smiles.” Leslie Ventura of Las Vegas Weekly noted that, on the tour, Ziegler’s dancing added “dimension and weight to the dramatic vocals.” Britt Robson of the Star Tribune added, “The clear-cut star was Ziegler, obviously Sia’s alter ego. … Ziegler was a riveting whirlwind, contorting her appendages and facial expressions with equal aplomb, topped by forward flips”. Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote that her “frenetic moves and flickering expressions ramp up the songs’ emotional stakes”. Reviewing Sia’s concert in 2017, Richard He of The Guardian called Ziegler “a physical virtuoso to match Sia’s vocal acrobatics, embodying the songs’ emotional turmoil.” David James Young of Junkee felt that Ziegler’s performance “cements her status as one of the great dancers of the modern era. … She leaves everything out there on the stage”. Bonnie Malkin of The Guardian wrote that Ziegler’s “face and body are extraordinary. … So expressive, so wild in her movement, so magnetic.”
Ziegler was named by Time magazine as one of the “30 most influential teens of 2015”; she made the list again in 2016 and in 2017. She was also on the Harpers Bazaar 2015 list of “19 Rising Style Icons Aged 19 and Under”. Billboard selected Sia and Ziegler’s performance of “Elastic Heart” on Saturday Night Live 2015 as one of the 10 Best SNL musical performances since the 1990s, “12-year-old dance phenom Maddie Ziegler … displayed power, vulnerability, and more than a little weirdness”. Ziegler won a 2016 People’s Choice Award, a 2016 Teen Choice Award and a 2017 Teen Choice Award. She won a 2017 Shorty Award in one category and received an audience honor in another. In 2018 and 2019, The Hollywood Reporter named Ziegler among Hollywood’s top thirty stars under age eighteen. In 2018, for the third year in a row, Ziegler won the award for Choice Dancer at the Teen Choice Awards.
As of 2022, Ziegler’s Instagram account, “Kenzie”, has more than 14 million followers, she has more than 22 million followers on TikTok, her two YouTube channels have received a total of more than 500 million views, with more than 3 million subscribers on her main channel, and she has more than one million Twitter followers under her nickname, “Kenzie”. Refinery29 included her on its 2017 list of 29 young actors, singers and activists “on the verge of superstardom.” The same year, Tiger Beat named her to its annual list of “19 Under 19”. Ziegler won the 2018 Teen Choice Awards for Choice Muser.
Trivia
She has dreamed of performing on Broadway as either a dancer or choreographer.
She was born Taylor Nicole Ziegler, but her name was changed to Madison Nicole a couple of days after she was born.
She has been dancing since she was 2 years old.
Alongside dancing, she also sings, acts, and models.
She has won more than 12 crowns from dance competitions.
Her favorite dance styles are tap and lyrical.
She was crowned Lifetime Beautiful Stars.
She received the scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet Summer Camp Intensive but was not able to participate.
In the season 2 mid-season finale of Dance Moms, the girls auditioned for a Joffery Ballet Scholarship. On the show, Chloe is the only one who receives a full scholarship. In reality, Maddie received a full scholarship to a Joffrey modern dance program; Chloe got a partial scholarship for ballet.
She has appeared in the music video for Sia’s song Chandelier and has performed the dance from the video with Sia on The Ellen DeGeneres Show. The music video has more than 178 million views on YouTube.
She has appeared in a Sketchers commercial.
Some of her best friends are Kalani Hilliker and Kendall Vertes. Kendall also dances on the reality TV show Dance Moms. Kalani used to be a part of Dance Moms with them but left to dance at a different studio.
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