Maddie Ziegler

She appeared in Lifetime's reality show Dance Moms from 2011 (at age 8) until 2016, and starred in a series of music videos by Sia, beginning with "Chandelier" and "Elastic Heart", which have in total attracted more than 6 billion views on YouTube.

[3] 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 Fallout (2021), Velma in Steven Spielberg's West Side Story (2021), Lindy in Fitting In (2023) and Ruthie in My Old Ass (2024).

"[32] In 2015, Ziegler starred with Shia LaBeouf in "Elastic Heart", another Sia video, which has accumulated more than 1 billion YouTube views.

[39] In 2016, Ziegler starred in a fourth Sia video, "Cheap Thrills", from the album This Is Acting,[40] in which she "delivers another powerful performance".

[42][43] Kathleen Hildebrand wrote in Süddeutsche Zeitung that anyone who has seen Ziegler's "iconic" movement will never again return to "boringly ordinary" MTV videos.

[47] In 2012, Ziegler's first professional acting job was portraying the character Young Deb on an episode of the Lifetime series Drop Dead Diva.

[49] She continued her acting career in 2015 with guest spots on the Disney Channel series Austin & Ally and ABC Family's Pretty Little Liars.

[50][51] In January 2016, she guest starred in the episode "Ballet and the Beasts" on Nickelodeon's Nicky, Ricky, Dicky & Dawn.

[55] Colin Trevorrow, the director of The Book of Henry, told Entertainment Weekly that Ziegler "is extraordinarily capable.

"[56] 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".

[60][61] 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".

[71] She plays Velma in Steven Spielberg's version of West Side Story[72] and stars as Lindy in the film Fitting In[73] (initially titled Bloody Hell), written and directed by Molly McGlynn, which premiered at South by Southwest in March 2023.

[83] Alex Stedman, in IGN, wrote: "Maddie Ziegler and Kerrice Brooks in particular are fantastic as Elliott’s best friends Ruthie and Ro".

[84] 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.

[87] Ziegler has modeled for, or represented, such brands as Clean & Clear,[88] Capezio,[89][90] including their Betsey Johnson line,[91] Target,[92] Ralph Lauren[93] and Tiffany & Co.[94] She has also been featured on numerous magazine covers and in fashion editorials,[95] including Vogue,[96] Schön!,[97] Elle, Nylon,[98] Vs.,[99] Seventeen,[100] Harper's Bazaar,[101] People,[102] Dazed,[103] Cosmopolitan,[104] i-D,[20] Billboard,[27] Teen Vogue,[105] Stella,[106] Maniac,[107] Vanity Fair Italia,[108] Flaunt,[109] Paper,[110] Galore[111] and Russh.

[115][116] In 2017, she appeared as a guest judge in an episode of Project Runway[117] and on the cover of Sia's 2017 album Everyday is Christmas.

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.

[155] In 2012, Ziegler, along with her mother and sister, partnered with Starlight Children's Foundation to help raise awareness for chronically ill youth.

[159] 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.[160] Since 2016, Ziegler has partnered with Dancers Against Cancer, appearing in public service announcements to raise awareness and funding for people battling cancer.

[161] 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.

[163] 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.

[164] Reviews called Ziegler's work in "Chandelier" "a dazzling dance performance" (Billboard magazine);[166] commented that she "dances with such impressive flexibility" (The Guardian);[167] 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);[168] and said that she "interprets the song's lyrics into something that is deranged, isolated, manic and profound" (Dazed magazine).

[103] People magazine joked that she is "a super-human graceful alien sent from Planet Talented to make us mere mortals look really clumsy".

[102] A 2015 feature in The Huffington Post praised her artistry: Her ... jétés and pirouettes juxtapose self-containment with a sort of reckless abandon.

[169]Ballet choreographer Troy Schumacher told New York magazine in 2016: "She has, fascinatingly, really created her own world of dance.

... [Her] presence adds a mischievous energy, as if replicated movements can't capture the heart behind those wide eyes and deranged smiles.

"[171] Leslie Ventura of Las Vegas Weekly noted that, on the tour, Ziegler's dancing added "dimension and weight to the dramatic vocals.

... Ziegler was a riveting whirlwind, contorting her appendages and facial expressions with equal aplomb, topped by forward flips".

[173] Jon Pareles of The New York Times wrote that her "frenetic moves and flickering expressions ramp up the songs' emotional stakes".

"[139] David James Young of Junkee felt that Ziegler's performance "cements her status as one of the great dancers of the modern era.