- published: 13 Jul 2016
- views: 35242
Madison "Maddie" Nicole Ziegler (born September 30, 2002) is an American child dancer, actress and model. She is best known for appearing in Lifetime's reality show Dance Moms and for starring in three music videos by Sia, "Chandelier", "Elastic Heart" and "Big Girls Cry", which cumulatively have attracted more than 1.7 billion views on YouTube. Ziegler has also guest-starred on scripted shows and danced on various TV shows, and she has been seen on magazine covers and in feature articles. She has modeled for Capezio, Ralph Lauren and Target, among other brands. Ziegler was named by Time magazine as one of the "30 most influential teens of 2015". She is expected to make her feature film debut in 2016 in The Book of Henry.
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. She 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), 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.