Hayden Panettiere Biography:

Since she was only a year old, when she started her career by appearing in a television commercial for Playskool, actress Hayden Panettiere constantly worked on television and feature films.  At five years old, Hayden was hired and cast as Sarah Roberts on the daytime soap opera “One Life to Live” (ABC, 1968- ), where she worked until 1995. She then went on to secure another regular role on the daytime soap circuit as Lizzie Spaulding in “Guiding Light” (CBS, 1952- ), while appearing in small cameo appearances on the science fiction comedy “Aliens in the Family” (ABC, 1996) and “Touched by an Angel” (CBS, 1994-2003).

While her official film introduction was in the dark comedy “Pants on Fire” (1997), her first released movie was “Object of My Affection” (1998), starring Jennifer Aniston. After lending her voice talents as Princess Dot in “A Bug’s Life” working with a young Ashley Tisdale (1998), she grabbed a small part in “Message in a Bottle” with Kevin Costner (1999) as a young teen girl on a sinking boat, then portrayed  the pre-teen version of Doris Duke, an peculiar heiress who inherited $100 million at age thirteen, in “Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke” (CBS, 1999). 

While holding down a solid acting career, Panettiere attended South Orangetown Middle School in her native New York, but in eighth grade started home schooling. Meanwhile, she received more well-known feature roles, including being cast in “Remember the Titans” with super star Denzel Washington (2000) where she portrayed a ten-year-old football fixated daughter of a washed up high school coach, a part she played with significant courage.

Hayden then lent her voice talents once again while voicing Suri, the tomboy dinosaur daughter in “Dinosaur” (2000), then played a energetic and talented pre-teen in “Joe Somebody” (2000), the sad Tim Allen comedy about a worn down loser who finally gets his chance to become somebody. She then played a Young Jeanne to Hilary Swank’s role in “The Affair of the Necklace” (2001), a boring and pompous period film about a sneaky woman (Swank) who masterminds a scheme to implicate the rich and famous in the ending years of 18th century France. 

Panettiere then came back to television with a regular role in the final season of “Ally McBeal” (Fox, 1997-2002), portraying Maddie Harrington, the long lost daughter of Ally (Calista Flockhart) whose birth was the result of an egg donation gone wrong from ten years earlier. Meanwhile, Panettiere continued her thread of playing feisty young teen girls in the movie “Raising Helen” (2003), playing a disturbed 14 year old girl suddenly in the control of her happy but hair-brained fashion model sister (Kate Hudson).

In “Normal” (HBO, 2003), she played the young teen daughter trying to figure out why her dad (Tom Wilkinson) unexpectedly wants to have a sex change operation. She next appeared as a gifted and attractive young girl who becomes friends with a teenager (Ryan Kelley) after a terrible accident shoots him into a fantasy world in the fairy tale, “The Dust Factory” (2003). In “Tiger Cruise” (2004), a Disney Channel original television movie, she played the lead character role as the daughter of a Navy chief (Bill Pulman) who tries to encourage her dad to retire in the middle of the sudden deployment of his ship to deal with the terror events of September 11, 2001. 

In “Racing Stripes” (2005), she worked with an all-star cast while she ventured to South Africa to play with live zebras, appearing as one of two human characters in the mostly animated Warner Bros. feature. Next, she was hired and cast in a leading role in “Ice Princess” (2005), portraying Gen Harwood, an ice skating phenomenon who is brutally competing on the United States National circuit. While reviews were both good and bad, box office dollars did not materialize and the production was a flop. 

Panettiere next starred in the second video sequel “Bring It On: All or Nothing” (2006), playing the daughter of affluent parents who tries to make the cheerleading squad at her new high school after moving to a low class neighborhood. After appearing in an episode of the failed “Commander in Chief” with Geena Davis (ABC, 2005-06), she played the gullible and naive daughter of an professional con artist (Joely Richardson) who resorts to murder and deception to cover her troubled past. 

Hayden returned to the movie screen to costar in “The Architect” (2006), playing the sexually curious young teenage daughter of an unrealistic architect (Anthony LaPaglia) whose participation in the knocking down of a dangerous Chicago housing project causes him to face up to issues with his family he would rather forget.

Already in the fast lane to become the next sexy Hollywood celebrity, Panettiere was shot into the spotlight with the smash hit television series “Heroes” (NBC, 2006- ), a comic book era series about eleven outwardly regular people from around the world who begin to find they have supernatural powers due to a gene mutation they have had since birth.

Panettiere was one of the main characters in the group cast, playing Claire Bennet, a high school cheerleader who learns that she is indestructible and becomes a target for annihilation by Sylar (Zachary Quinto), an deranged man on a mission to kill the others in order to receive their powers. The task to save Panettiere’s character led the other heroes to “Save the cheerleader, save the world”.  

• Also Credited As:
  Hayden Leslie Panettiere
• Born:
  on 08/21/1989 in New York
• Job Titles:
  Actor, Singer, Model

Family

• Brother: Jansen Panettiere. born c. 1995
• Father: Skip Panettiere.
• Mother: Lesley Panettiere.

Significant Others

• Companion: Stephen Colletti. Appeared on the MTV reality show, "Laguna Beach"; dated for a year, before splitting in September 2007.

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