The astonishing Paige Zilba '16 never imagined that she would have over 13 million followers across all her social media platforms. Until it happened.
Paige Zilba '16, who earned a bachelor's degree in music therapy from the Baldwin Wallace University Conservatory of Music, has had enormous successes in the social media world. In fact, she has 12 million followers just on Tik Tok alone!
Zilba describes her career as multifaceted. "In no particular order, I am a beatboxer, content creator, musician, vocalist, songwriter, voice impressionist, lyricist, producer, and music therapy graduate. My passion for the art of creating is what has led me to the career I have now."
The Perrysburg, Ohio, native had that creator's passion from a young age. Growing up, she was constantly on the go, whether that was theatre practices and shows, piano lessons, voice lessons, orchestra or choir rehearsals.
One day, in fifth grade, she tried beatboxing and fell in love with it. As a BW student, she continued beatboxing and founded the a capella group SŌL.
After graduating, she moved to Los Angeles, where she began working in music therapy, helping adults and children with disabilities, while posting videos on the side for a growing following.
One day, Zilba received a direct message on Instagram asking if she would create content for TikTok, an emerging platform known as Musically at the time. She remembers posting her first video and waking up to find it had over 20,000 views.
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and her music therapy job ended. As they say, "when one door closes, another one opens." Zilba decided to try making a living based on her considerable social media following.
The rest is history, and she now has her own business as CEO/content creator of Paige Zilba Productions LLC, collaborating with such well-known brands as Disney+, GLAD, Venmo and Tubi. She's even been featured on The Today Show.
While Zilba is constantly thinking of new skit ideas, most recently, she has been working on an animated musical project called "Princess and the Beat," which is about a beatboxing princess.
She also had the opportunity to beatbox with the L.A. Philharmonic Orchestra. Another recent highlight: receiving a Gold YouTube award for reaching more than a million subscribers.
Zilba credits her successes to Baldwin Wallace and how the various music classes she took prepared her for her career.
She encourages today's students to be unafraid "to create your own path, because you never know where that might lead. I've had so many doors open for me and met so many wonderful people because I created my own path."
See and hear Zilba in action in the YouTube video below - maybe you'll be her next follower.
