Hayden Panettiere

• 1. Introduction

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  Hayden Panettiere was eleven months old when she first appeared on screen, in a 1990 advertisement for a Playskool toy train. That commercial was the start of a working life that now spans several decades.

  How does an infant in commercials grow into a lead actress in television, film, games and music? And what happened when fame arrived with both a platform and a price?

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• 2. Family and Soap Operas

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  Hayden Lesley Panettiere was born on the 21st of August 1989 and raised in Palisades, New York. Her father, Alan Lee Panettiere, was a captain in the New York City Fire Department. Her mother, Lesley R. Vogel, had worked as a soap opera actress. The family is of Italian, German and English descent.

  Hayden had one younger brother, Jansen Panettiere, who also became an actor. He died in 2023 at the age of 28, from aortic valve complications linked to enlarged heart syndrome.

  Her schooling bent around her work. After South Orangetown Middle School in New York, she was homeschooled with private tutors from grade nine until she finished high school.

  In 1994 she began playing Sarah Roberts on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live, a part she held until 1997. In 1996 she also joined the CBS soap Guiding Light as Lizzie Spaulding, and she stayed with that show until 2000.

  Lizzie's storyline included a battle with leukemia. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society gave Panettiere its Special Recognition Award for bringing the disease to the attention of daytime viewers and raising national awareness. The next honor to come her way would be a Grammy nomination.

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• 3. Child Star Roles

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  In 1998 Panettiere made her feature film debut at the age of nine. She was the narrator and the voice of Princess Dot in the Pixar film A Bug's Life. The role brought her a Young Artist Award nomination and a Grammy nomination, which made her the fifth youngest Grammy nominee.

  The Object of My Affection, also from 1998, was actually her first released film. At the age of eight, she appears briefly in its opening scene as a mermaid in a school play.

  In 1999 she played the girl on a sinking sailboat in Message in a Bottle. That year the Lifetime film If You Believe earned her another Young Artist Award nomination. In 2000 Remember the Titans cast her as the coach's daughter, and she also voiced a role in the film Dinosaur.

  Television guest parts piled up alongside the films. She played the title character's daughter on Fox's Ally McBeal. She played the daughter of a man transitioning to female in the HBO film Normal. She also had a recurring guest role on Malcolm in the Middle and appeared in two different roles on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

  In 2004 Disney Channel gave her first starring roles. In Tiger Cruise she played the daughter of the character played by Bill Pullman. In The Dust Factory she played a teenage girl caught in a fantasy realm, opposite fellow teen actor Ryan Kelley.

  Raising Helen, also in 2004, cast her as the adolescent niece of Kate Hudson's title character. She played older sister to the real-life siblings Abigail and Spencer Breslin. In 2005 she starred with Michelle Trachtenberg as an ice skating rival in Disney's Ice Princess. That same year she played a budding jockey named Channing Walsh in Racing Stripes. In 2006 she played a cheerleader in Bring It On: All or Nothing.

  A far larger role was about to arrive on NBC.

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• 4. Heroes and Fame

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  Tim Kring created the NBC series Heroes, and it brought Panettiere far greater fame as Claire Bennet, a high school cheerleader with healing powers. She was a main cast member for 73 episodes between 2006 and 2010.

  In 2007 the show made her a regular on the science fiction convention circuit. She was invited to events around the world, including Gen Con, New York Comic Con and Fan Expo Canada. Fame also brought limits. She has complained that people tend to see her as only the popular cheerleader type or only the blonde, which narrows her options.

  Early in 2007 she became the target of an MTV prank on Punk'd. Her own mother engineered it. A male fan talked with her about her work, and that set off a jealous reaction from the man's spouse. In April 2012 Panettiere came back to the show to host an episode.

  In June 2007 she signed with the William Morris Agency, having previously been represented by the United Talent Agency. Forbes estimated that she earned $2 million in 2007.

  Brands wanted her face. In late 2006 Neutrogena made her the cover girl of its new worldwide ad campaign. In September 2007 she appeared in a Heroes-themed Got Milk? ad, with photographs by Annie Leibovitz. In February 2008 Kohl's announced that she would be its next Candie's spokesperson.

  From 2007 to 2008 she designed limited edition handbags for Dooney & Bourke and modeled them in magazine ads. In September 2008 she launched her own line of calfskin leather bags for the company.

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• 5. Songs and Nashville

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  In 2004 Panettiere recorded the song "My Hero Is You" for Tiger Cruise, along with a music video. She also recorded "Someone Like You", a duet with Watt White, for The Dust Factory, again with a video. In 2005 she recorded "I Fly" for Ice Princess, in which she also co-starred.

  In 2006 she contributed a song to the Hollywood Records compilation Girl Next, and in 2007 she recorded "Go to Girl" for Girl Next 2. The year 2007 was busy for her voice. She sang the national anthem at A Capitol Fourth and covered "Cruella De Vil" for Disneymania 5. She also recorded "Try" for the Bridge to Terabithia soundtrack and a ballad called "I Still Believe" for Cinderella III: A Twist in Time.

  Her first single not tied to an acting role was the reggae-infused "Wake Up Call", released digitally on the 5th of August 2008. The clothing brand Candie's announced an ad campaign for it in late July. It also supported the single with a television advertisement and a music video. Sebastian Stan, who had played the brother of her character in The Architect, played her boyfriend in the video.

  In March 2012 it was announced that Panettiere had been cast opposite Connie Britton in the ABC musical drama Nashville. She played Juliette Barnes. The show reunited her with Burgess Jenkins, her castmate from Remember the Titans, who appeared in the first few episodes.

  She recorded many songs for the series, released as singles and on its soundtrack albums. She also gave numerous concert appearances tied to the show's touring promotion. In 2013 she recorded a version of "The Fabric of My Life" for a Cotton Incorporated campaign. In 2015 she recorded a duet version of "Crazy" with Steven Tyler of Aerosmith.

  The role earned her two Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress , Series, Miniseries or Television Film. Nashville moved from ABC to CMT for its fifth and sixth seasons. It concluded on the 26th of July 2018, with Panettiere credited as a main cast member for 112 episodes.

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• 6. Sequels and Games

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  In July 2009 Panettiere starred in the teen comedy I Love You, Beth Cooper. In September 2010 she played Amanda Knox in the controversial Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy. That same year she voiced Kate in the animated film Alpha and Omega.

  In April 2011 she appeared in the Scream sequel Scream 4 as Kirby Reed. The film received mixed reviews, but Panettiere was acclaimed and was considered a highlight. The same year she replaced Anne Hathaway as the voice of Red in the animated sequel Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil.

  In April 2015 she joined the cast of Custody, alongside Viola Davis, with whom she had appeared in The Architect in 2006.

  In January 2022 Panettiere briefly reprised Kirby Reed in the Scream sequel Scream, through a photograph used in the film. The photograph revealed that the character had survived the events of the fourth film. She is credited with special thanks for the photograph and gave a voice cameo.

  In May 2022 it was announced that she would return to the franchise in Scream VI. After a career hiatus, it marked her first on-screen film appearance since 2018. She did not appear in the franchise's next installment, Scream 7.

  Her voice has also carried video games. She voiced Kairi in Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. She voiced Xion in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. Alyson Stoner replaced her for the later sequel games in the series.

  For the PlayStation 4 game Until Dawn, she both voiced and modelled the character Samantha Giddings, known as Sam. She reprised the role in a new post-credit scene for the remake, released on PlayStation 5 and Windows.

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• 7. Causes and Campaigns

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  On the 31st of October 2007, Panettiere joined The Whaleman Foundation in an attempt to disrupt the annual dolphin hunt in Taiji, Wakayama, Japan. She was part of a confrontation between Japanese fishermen and five other surfers from Australia and the United States, including former Home and Away actress Isabel Lucas. The confrontation lasted more than ten minutes. The surfers were then forced back to the beach, and afterward they left the country.

  Parts of the confrontation can be seen in The Cove, an award-winning documentary shown at the Sundance Film Festival. The fishermen consider the condemnation an attack on their culture.

  On the 28th of January 2008, Panettiere handed a letter of protest to the Norwegian ambassador in the United States, arguing that Norway should stop its whale hunt. She also delivered a letter to the Japanese ambassador calling for an end to Japan's whaling. At a 2007 Greenpeace event in Anchorage, Alaska, she defended aboriginal whaling. She drew a line between commercial whaling and the whaling practiced by aboriginal tribes in the United States.

  In May 2008 she took part in an eBay auction to benefit Save the Whales Again, a campaign of The Whaleman Foundation. The auction offered tickets to a fundraising dinner at the Hollywood restaurant Beso, owned by Eva Longoria, and a whale watching tour off the coast of Santa Barbara with Panettiere. That month she told Teen Vogue that her fame gave her a platform. "The show put me in a place to speak for things that I'm passionate about," she said of Heroes.

  In 2007 she also became an official supporter of Ronald McDonald House Charities and joined its celebrity board, called the Friends of RMHC.

  In October 2008 she released a satirical public service announcement through the website Funny or Die. In it she mocked Republican candidate John McCain for his age and temper. She made clear that she intended to vote for Barack Obama and urged other young people to vote.

  Panettiere has long backed statehood for the District of Columbia. In 2008 she appeared in a public service announcement with DC Shadow Senator Paul Strauss, endorsing voting rights for Washington. In 2011 Mayor Vincent Gray named a day in her honor for her advocacy. At the ceremony she called it an unfathomable fact that the District faces "taxation without representation". She also joined Strauss' "51 Stars" campaign, which aimed to get 51 celebrities to endorse making Washington the 51st state.

  She was also a teen ambassador for the Candie's Foundation, whose mission is to prevent teen pregnancy. On the 6th of May 2009 she joined a town hall meeting in New York City on that issue, alongside Bristol Palin and Major League Baseball pitcher Matt Garza.

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• 8. Personal Life

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  Panettiere began dating her Heroes co-star Milo Ventimiglia in December 2007, when she was 18 and he was 30. They broke up in February 2009.

  Later in 2009 she met Wladimir Klitschko, then the world heavyweight boxing champion, at the book launch party for Room 23. The coffee table book was produced by Sanela Diana Jenkins, and both Panettiere and Klitschko were featured in it. The two soon began dating. She sat ringside on the 11th of September 2010 for his knockout victory over Samuel Peter. In May 2011 they announced a split, citing the distance between them, and said they would stay close friends.

  In an April 2013 interview she confirmed that the relationship had resumed. On the 6th of December 2013, she and Klitschko, then her fiancé, visited the Euromaidan protests in Kyiv. His brother Vitali was one of the leading figures of those protests. In October 2013 she had announced their engagement, and in December 2014 she gave birth to their daughter.

  In 2015 Panettiere said that she had experienced postpartum depression after her daughter's birth. On the 28th of September, on Live with Kelly and Michael, she said that it is "scary and needs to be talked about".

  In August 2018 her mother confirmed that she and Klitschko had split again, remaining on friendly terms. That year Panettiere gave up full custody of their daughter, Kaya, to him, amid struggles with addiction and postpartum depression. She described the decision as a "living nightmare" and "heartbreaking", but said it was necessary for her recovery. As of May 2026, she keeps a good co-parenting relationship with Klitschko and often visits her daughter in Ukraine.

  After the breakup she began dating Brian Hickerson. In 2020 they split after he was arrested for corporal injury on a spouse or cohabitant, assault, and intimidating a witness, who was Panettiere. The charges stemmed from alleged incidents between May 2019 and June 2020. In July 2020 she urged victims of domestic abuse to come forward and share their stories, speaking after having gone through abuse herself.

  In 2026 Panettiere publicly came out as bisexual. She told Us Weekly that it was something she had never been able to share, because it was never the right time. She said she feared that honesty would look like jumping on the bandwagon. She also said that paparazzi waited outside and she had very little privacy, which kept her from fully committing emotionally to relationships with women. "It's sad I had to wait until I was 36 years old to share that part of me, but better late than never, right?" she said.

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