Peter Eric Zizzo (born February 22, 1966) is an American songwriter, music producer, musician and writer. Zizzo is also a stage and television actor, having appeared in the Showtime series Billions in 2021. Zizzo has written hits for artists such as

Celine Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...

, Avril Lavigne,

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, O.A.R,

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, M2M,

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, and many others. He has been considered instrumental in developing the careers of artists Avril Lavigne, Vanessa Carlton in the US, and Pixie Lott in the UK. Recordings of his songs have collectively sold in excess of 100 million copies worldwide. Zizzo has also produced songs for

Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...

and

Nick Jr. Nick Jr. (known on-air as the Nick Jr. Channel) is an American pay television channel spun off from Nickelodeon's long-running programming block of the same name. It is run by Paramount Global through its networks division's Kids and Family Gr ...

, including the shows ''

Middle School Moguls ''Middle School Moguls'' is a 2019 American animated television miniseries created by Gina and Jenae Heitkamp. The series stars Laurie Hernandez, Daniella Perkins, Haley Tju and Jade Pettyjohn. The series premiered on September 2 on Nickelodeon, ...

'', ''

The Fresh Beat Band ''The Fresh Beat Band'' (originally known as ''The JumpArounds'') is an American live action musical children's television series created by Scott Kraft and Nadine van der Velde for Nickelodeon. The show stars the "Fresh Beats" (Kiki, Shout, M ...

'', '' Blue's Clues & You!'' and the Nickelodeon revival of '' Winx Club''. For ''Winx Club'', he composed many of the episodic songs as well as the single "We Are Believix," which was sung by ''

Victorious ''Victorious'' (stylized as ''VICTORiOUS'') is an American sitcom created by Dan Schneider (TV producer), Dan Schneider that originally aired on Nickelodeon, debuting on March 27, 2010, and concluding on February 2, 2013 after four seasons. Th ...

'' star

Elizabeth Gillies Elizabeth Egan Gillies (born July 26, 1993) is an American actress and singer. She gained prominence for her starring roles as Jade West in the Nickelodeon series ''Victorious'' (2010–2013), and as Fallon Carrington on The CW revival of ''D ...

. In 2013, Zizzo won the

Daytime Emmy Award The Daytime Emmy Awards, or Daytime Emmys, are part of the extensive range of Emmy Awards for artistic and technical merit for the American television industry. Bestowed by the New York–based National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences ...

for Outstanding Music Direction and Composition for his music on ''The Fresh Beat Band''.

Early life

Born in New York to musical parents, Zizzo was initially a teen rock guitar prodigy, featured in ''Guitar Player'' magazine. As a songwriter, he got his first cut, "March", by

The Weather Girls The Weather Girls are an American female duo whose best-known line-up comprised Martha Wash and Izora Armstead. Formed in 1976 in San Francisco, California, The Weather Girls members began their musical career as Two Tons O' Fun, the female back ...

, at age 18. He attended college at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

, graduating with a Bachelor's in English. Shortly thereafter, he won BMI's "Best New Songwriter" award on the heels of his first hit, the dance track "Whispers" by

Corina Corina is a female given name of ancient Greek origin, derived from κόρη (''korē'') meaning "girl, maiden".Ric Wake Ric Wake is an American record producer who has won four Grammy Awards and two Oscar Awards. During his tenure as staff producer with Sony Music Entertainment he has worked with vocalists such as Celine Dion, Whitney Houston, Lucero, Taylor ...

on records by

and

. It was through Wake's company that he signed his first developing artist, Billy Porter, whose A&M debut ''Untitled'' was largely written and produced by Zizzo, and featured "Love Is On The Way", the central ballad from the hit film ''

The First Wives Club ''The First Wives Club'' is a 1996 American comedy film directed by Hugh Wilson, based on the 1992 novel of the same name by Olivia Goldsmith. The film stars Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, and Diane Keaton as three divorcées who seek retribution ...

''. Porter went on to win a Tony award for his starring role in Broadway's '' Kinky Boots''.

Entrepreneurial ventures

In his role of Artist Development, Zizzo discovered, developed, produced, and helped launch prominent artists such as

Avril Lavigne Avril Ramona Lavigne ( ; born September 27, 1984) is a Canadian singer and songwriter. At age 16, she signed a two-album recording contract with Arista Records. Her debut studio album, ''Let Go (Avril Lavigne album), Let Go'' (2002), is the ...

, Pixie Lott, and more recently, ''People'''s "One To Watch, 2017" Hailey Knox. Zizzo has also spoken and led seminars at

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

and other music industry events. Zizzo's songs and productions have sold over 100 million copies worldwide. In 2010, Zizzo's production and writing on BeBe and CeCe Winans' "Still" won a Grammy for Best Gospel Album. Zizzo has also written and produced songs for several shows on

, including ''

'', '' Winx Club'', ''

'', and the title music for '' Blue's Clues & You!'' (a reboot of ''

Blue's Clues ''Blue's Clues'' is an American live-action/animated children's television series, created by Angela C. Santomero, Todd Kessler, and Traci Paige Johnson, that premiered on Nickelodeon as part of its Nick Jr. block on September 8, 1996, and ...

''). His work on ''The Fresh Beat Band'' in 2013 won him an Emmy Award for best musical composition. He was nominated again the following year for Outstanding Original Song for "Spring Has Sprung", from the show ''Peter Rabbit''. Zizzo is also an author of short fiction and has written several screenplays, one of which, ''Timmy Tilson'', placed in the finals in The Creative World Awards international screenplay competition.

Partial discography

Acting career

In 2009 Zizzo played a character named after himself in the

Steven Soderbergh Steven Andrew Soderbergh (; born January 14, 1963) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, cinematographer and editor. A pioneer of modern independent cinema, Soderbergh is an acclaimed and prolific filmmaker. Soderbergh's direc ...

film ''

The Girlfriend Experience ''The Girlfriend Experience'' is a 2009 American slice of life drama film directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring then-pornographic actress Sasha Grey. It was shot in New York City, and a rough cut was screened at the Sundance Film Festiva ...

'' starring adult film star

Sasha Grey Marina Ann Hantzis (born March 14, 1988), known professionally as Sasha Grey, is an American actress, model, writer, musician, and former pornographic actress. Grey began her acting career in the pornographic film industry, winning 15 awards for ...

. The film was written by Zizzo's lifelong friends

Brian Koppelman Brian William Koppelman (born April 27, 1966) is an American showrunner. Koppelman is the co-writer of ''Ocean's Thirteen'' and ''Rounders (1998 film), Rounders'', the producer for films including ''The Illusionist (2006 film), The Illusionist'' a ...

and

David Levien David Levien (born December 9, 1967) is a screenwriter, director, producer, and novelist. He is co-creator, executive producer, and showrunner of Showtime's '' Billions'', along with Brian Koppelman. Over the past two decades Levien has created an ...

who also named a character after him in the poker classic ''

Rounders Rounders is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams. Rounders is a striking and fielding team game that involves hitting a small, hard, leather-cased ball with a rounded end wooden, plastic, or metal bat. The players score by running arou ...

''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zizzo, Peter 1966 births Living people Musicians from New York City Tufts University School of Arts and Sciences alumni 20th-century American guitarists Record producers from New York (state) American male songwriters