Hayden
Lesley Panettiere (/ˌpænətiˈɛər/; born August 21, 1989) is an American actress, model, and singer. She
is best known for her lead roles as Claire Bennet on the NBC superhero series Heroes (2006–2010) and Juliette Barnes in the ABC/CMT musical drama
series Nashville (2012–2018),
the latter of which earned her two nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress – Series, Miniseries or
Television Film. A
native of New York, she first
appeared in a commercial at the age of eleven months. Her full-time acting
career began by playing Sarah Roberts on One Life to Live (1994–1997) and Lizzie Spaulding on Guiding Light (1996–2000). Panettiere went on to star
in the Disney sports drama
film Remember the Titans (2000),
the final season of the legal comedy Ally McBeal (2002), the comedy-drama film Raising Helen (2004), the sports comedy film Racing Stripes (2005), the figure skating drama
film Ice Princess (2005), the comedy
film I Love You, Beth Cooper (2009),
the true crime drama film Amanda Knox:
Murder on Trial in Italy (2011), the slasher horror film Scream 4 (2011), and the drama film Custody (2016).
She also voiced the characters of Kairi and Xion in the video
game series Kingdom Hearts (2002–2017)
and Samantha "Sam" Giddings in the video game Until Dawn (2015). Panettiere was born and partly
raised in Palisades, New York. She
is the daughter of Lesley R. Vogel, a former soap opera actress, and Alan Lee
"Skip" Panettiere, a captain in the Fire Department of New York
City. She has one younger brother, actor Jansen Panettiere. Her mother's family lives in Indiana.
After Panettiere attended South Orangetown Middle School in New York, she
was homeschooled and had private
tutors from grade nine to the completion of high school to accommodate her
acting schedule. Panettiere first appeared in commercials at the age of eleven months,
beginning with an advertisement for a Playskool toy train. She landed a role as Sarah Roberts on
the ABC soap
opera One Life to Live from
1994 to 1997, which was followed by Lizzie Spaulding on the CBS soap
opera Guiding Light in 1996, and again
from 1997 to 2000. While on Guiding Light, Panettiere's
character Lizzie battled leukemia. The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society gave
her its Special Recognition Award for drawing the attention of daytime viewers
to the disease, and for improving national awareness. For her performance
in Lifetime Television's 1999
TV movie If You Believe, she
was nominated for the Young Artist Award for
Young Actress Age Ten or Under in the category of Best Performance in a TV
Movie or Pilot. Panettiere appeared on Fox's Ally McBeal as the title character's daughter, played
the daughter of a man transitioning to female in HBO Films' Normal, had a
recurring guest role on Malcolm in the Middle and
guest starred in Law & Order:
Special Victims Unit in two different roles. Panettiere
gained greater fame as Claire Bennet in the NBC series Heroes, which
was created by Tim Kring, as a high school cheerleader
with regenerative healing
powers. Thanks to her role on Heroes, she became a regular on
the science fiction convention circuit,
invited to attend conventions around the world in 2007, including Gen Con, New York Comic Con,
and Fan Expo Canada.
Panettiere has complained that her acting options are sometimes limited because
"people look at [her] as either the popular cheerleader type or just the
blonde". In early 2007, Panettiere appeared on the MTV show, Punk'd. The appearance was engineered by her mother and
involved a male "fan" discussing her work with her, instigating a
jealous reaction from the man's spouse. In April 2012, she hosted an episode of
the new series.In March 2012, it was announced Panettiere had been cast
opposite Connie Britton on the
ABC musical drama series Nashville, where
she portrayed Juliette Barnes. The
show reunited Panettiere with Burgess Jenkins (who appears in the first few episodes)
from Remember the Titans.
The show moved from ABC to CMT for its fifth and
sixth seasons, and concluded its run on July 26, 2018.