Dance Moms and music videos With Abby Lee Dance Company, Ziegler won numerous titles at regional, state and national dance competitions, including the 2014 Dancers Choice Award for Favorite Dancer 17 & Under. In 2010, she performed for
Paula Abdul's reality television program
Live to Dance. In 2011, eight-year-old Ziegler and her mother appeared 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 "emerged as the preternaturally polished standout on six seasons" on the show, where she continued to appear alongside her mother and younger sister, Mackenzie, until 2016, their last season on the show. In 2013, she 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. ... [She inspires] other dancers to pursue their dreams with originality and grace." She gained wide notice, at the age of 11, by starring in the 2014 video for "Chandelier" by Sia, which won the ARIA Music Award for Best Video. Sia discovered Ziegler on Dance Moms''. It was also nominated for the
Grammy Award for Best Music Video in 2015. It has received more than 2.5 billion views on YouTube, and at one point it was the 13th most viewed YouTube video of all time. Ziegler said of the choreography: "It ... was really out of the box and it expanded me a lot, because I'm used to competition dances where you're like,
Point your legs! But this time it was like, you just need to let go and feel it." In 2015, Ziegler starred with
Shia LaBeouf in "
Elastic Heart", another Sia video, which has accumulated more than 1 billion YouTube views. Later that year, Ziegler starred in the music video for "
Big Girls Cry" to complete her trilogy of videos from Sia's album
1000 Forms of Fear. She danced to Sia's vocals on several television shows in 2014 and 2015, 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, she 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. 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". In 2016, Ziegler starred in a fourth Sia video, "
Cheap Thrills", from the album
This Is Acting, in which she "delivers another powerful performance". This was followed by a fifth Sia video, later that year, for "
The Greatest". Kathleen Hildebrand wrote in
Süddeutsche Zeitung that anyone who has seen Ziegler's "iconic" movement will never again return to "boringly ordinary" MTV videos. Ziegler continued the collaboration with Sia and the group
LSD in the music videos for "
Thunderclouds" (2018) and "
No New Friends" (2019). She also dances in the 2020 music video for Sia's single, "
Together".
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 theaters where HBO Max was 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 version of
West Side Story and stars as Lindy in the film
Fitting In (initially titled
Bloody Hell), written and directed by
Molly McGlynn, which premiered at South by Southwest in March 2023. A review in
Collider said that Ziegler's "strong performance" "elevated" the film, while
The Daily Beasts thought her "natural performance leaves a lasting impression. ... Ziegler is a striking screen presence, and she brings a quiet charisma ... relatable and empathetic". Another in
The Daily Texan praised her graceful and "vulnerable performance", while an article in
The Globe and Mail noted "Ziegler's dry wit and vulnerability".
Kurt Loder wrote that Ziegler "captures the quietly conflicted Lindy with low-key expertise. She has a way with a zippy line, too." An
A.V. Club review says "Ziegler is a fantastic lead, bringing us into Lindy’s confused headspace." Ziegler plays Ruthie in the comedy film,
My Old Ass (2024), written and directed by
Megan Park, who directed
The Fallout. The film premiered at the
Sundance Film Festival, where
Variety presented Ziegler with one of its "Breakthrough Awards, which highlight the next generation of exceptional talents in front of the camera". Alex Stedman, in
IGN, wrote: "Maddie Ziegler and Kerrice Brooks in particular are fantastic as Elliott’s best friends Ruthie and Ro". Later the same year she starred in a short film,
Kodar: The Primordial God of Light and Ether, written by
Will Ropp and Nick Skardarasy. In 2024 Ziegler filmed a starring role in the film
Shiver, but post-production has been halted for financial reasons. She is set to appear in the upcoming 2026 film
Pretty Lethal.
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,
Schön!,
Elle,
Nylon,
Vs.,
Seventeen, ''
Harper's Bazaar, People, Dazed, Cosmopolitan, i-D, Stella, Maniac
, Vanity Fair Italia
, Flaunt
, Paper, Galore
and Russh''. 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 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. In 2020, she was the model for
Kate Spade's signature fragrance advertisements. In 2023, Ziegler and her sister launched a back-to-school fashion collection with
American Eagle Outfitters.
Dancing and dance judging In February 2016, Ziegler appeared as the featured dancer in the ABC TV special
The Wonderful World of Disney: Disneyland 60 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". In June, she starred in another Todrick Hall video, "Taylor in Wonderland", based on
Alice in Wonderland, dancing to a mash-up of
Taylor Swift songs. That same month, Ziegler joined
Fox's
So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation as a judge and a guest performer; she also 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, in a costume 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. 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 1.2 million Twitter followers and over 3 million followers on Facebook. Sia's videos of her dancing have accumulated more than six billion total views on YouTube. Ziegler's YouTube channel has more than 3.6 million subscribers. ==Philanthropy==