"Hi! I’m Hayden Panettiere, and I'm hot enough that I know I have your attention for at least 30 seconds."
— The John McCain Funny or Die "ad"
Hayden Leslie Panettiere is an American actress, model and singer. She was born on August 21, 1989 in Palisades, New York to a firefighter father and an actress mother, and was steered into the latter profession at an early age (think months).
Panettiere was known for her roles on the soap operas One Life to Live and Guiding Light and for her work in Disney films (most famously A Bug's Life and Remember the Titans, though she was never a big-name Disney star) before her Star-Making Role as Claire Bennet on Heroes turned her into a star, and a heartthrob for teenage boys. Since then, she continued to do voiceover work (for projects ranging from Robot Chicken to American Dad! to Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil) and live-action roles (Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy, Scream 4, Nashville). She took a hiatus from on-screen work for a number of years, and made her first appearance back in Scream VI, reprising her role from Scream 4.
Panettiere became the mother of Kaya Evdokia Klitschko on December 9, 2014 with her then-husband Wladimir Klitschko. She voluntarily checked herself into treatment for postpartum depression in October 2015 — and returned to treatment in May 2016, seeking healthier ways of dealing with it (which some fans suspect contributed in ABC's cancellation of Nashville). She divorced Klitschko in 2018, and began dating Brian Hickerson. However, the pair split in 2020 after Hickerson was arrested on charges consistent with domestic abuse. Panettiere issued a statement in the wake of the news calling for other domestic violence survivors to come forward with their stories; she has reportedly remained friends with Hickerson since he was released from jail.
Panettiere has accounts on Twitter
and Instagram. There is also a band who named themselves in her honour.
Notable credits with TV Tropes pages:
- One Life to Live (1994-97) as Sarah Roberts
- Aliens in the Family (1996) as Audrey
- Unhappily Ever After (1997) as Little Girl
- Guiding Light (1997-2000) as Lizzie Spaulding
- The Object of My Affection (1998) as Mermaid
- A Bug's Life (1998) as Dot (voice)
- A Bug's Life tie-in video game (1998)
- Message in a Bottle (1999) as Girl on Sinking Boat
- Touched by an Angel (1999) as Diana
- If You Believe (1999) as Young Suzie Stone, Alice Stone
- Dinosaur (2000) as Suri (voice)
- Remember the Titans (2000) as Sheryl Yoast
- Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (2001, 2005) as Ashley Austin Black, Angela Agnelli
- The Affair of the Necklace (2001) as Young Jeanne de Saint-Rémy de Valois
- Ally McBeal (2002) as Maddie Harrington
- Kingdom Hearts (2005-2012) as Kairi and Xion (voice)
- Kingdom Hearts (2002) as Kairi
- Kingdom Hearts II (2005) as Kairi
- Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep (2010) as Kairi and Xion
- Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance] (2012) as Xion
- Malcolm in the Middle (2003-05) as Jessica
- Normal (2003) as Patty Ann Applewood
- Fillmore! (2004) as Yumi (voice)
- Raising Helen (2004) as Audrey Davis
- Tiger Cruise (2004) as Maddie Dolan
- The Dust Factory (2004) as Melanie Lewis
- Racing Stripes (2005) as Channing Walsh
- Ice Princess (2005) as Gen Harwood
- Commander in Chief (2006) as Stacy
- Bring It On: All or Nothing (2006) as Britney Allen
- Heroes (2006-10) as Claire Bennet
- Heroes Reborn (2015-16)
- Robot Chicken (2007) as Cheetara, Ramona, Seuss Sister (voice)
- Scooby-Doo! and the Goblin King (2008) as Fairy Princess Willow (voice)
- I Love You, Beth Cooper (2009) as Beth Cooper
- Alpha and Omega (2010) as Kate (voice)
- American Dad! (2010) as Ashley (voice)
- Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy (2011) as Amanda Knox
- Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil (2011) as Red Riding Hood (voice)
- Scream as Kirby Reed
- Nashville (2012-18) as Juliette Barnes
- Until Dawn (2015) as Samantha "Sam" Giddings (voice and motion-capture)
This actress contains examples of:
- The Alcoholic: She revealed in 2022 that she has struggled with alcoholism and opioid addiction since her teen years, reaching her worst point due to her struggles with postpartum depression, and it got so bad she risked dying from liver damage before she eventually went to rehab and got sober.
- Amicable Exes: She and her husband Wladimir Klitschko have divorced but remain on good terms and are both active in their daughter's life.
- And Starring:
- "Abuse" (the first of her two Law & Order: Special Victims Unit episodes)
- If You Believe
- and The Forger (although the DVD cover for the latter◊ has her second to Josh Hutcherson).
- she gets a "With" on Scream VI.
- Billing Displacement:
- Despite being first billed among the non-Scooby regulars in the credits for Scooby-Doo! and the Goblin King, her character Fairy Princess Willow doesn't have much screen time or any dialogue until the climax.
- She has top billing on the DVD packaging for The Dust Factory, but she's second-billed to Armin Mueller-Stahl on the movie's credits. Meanwhile, Ryan Kelley (who plays the main character) is second-billed on the packaging and third-billed in the credits.
- Cast Incest: Trivia time. She dated Milo Ventimiglia – her onscreen uncle – during the run of Heroes.
- The Cast Showoff:
- She has lent her pipes to the music for (and been on the soundtrack albums for) several of her films (Tiger Cruise, The Dust Factory, Shanghai Kiss, Ice Princess, Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil) and also two she doesn't appear in (Bridge to Terabithia - another one where she's also on the album - and Cinderella III: A Twist in Time). In her Bring It On movie (see below), one of her songs is playing in the background of the scene where she's hiding from her jerk boyfriend and mouthing "Asshole," although the latter is sometimes cut from TV airings.
- She sings in Nashville, because she plays a country singer (see also Non-Singing Voice).
- She shows off her ice skating skills in The Dust Factory and Ice Princess, doing most of her own skating in the latter.
- Celebrity Voice Actor: As child (Dinosaur, Fillmore!, A Bug's Life), adult (Alpha and Omega, Robot Chicken, American Dad!), and both (Kingdom Hearts).
- Cover Version:
- Recorded a version of "Cruella de Vil" for the album Disneymania 5 (although she was never a Disney Channel star like Hilary Duff et al - her only album for the Mouse hasn't been released, and while other Disney stars did Original Movies involving lighthearted japes, hers involved 9/11!).
- The Nashville Christmas album Christmas With Nashville has her doing "White Christmas."
- In season four she does a duet of "Crazy" with Steven Tyler (no, not that "Crazy" - the one popularized by Patsy Cline), and alongside Will Chase she demonstrates that she don't give a damn 'bout her bad reputation.
- Creator Backlash: She is in no way proud of "Wake Up Call." Or the krumping.
- Dawson Casting: Averted through most of her time on Heroes; inverted with Ice Princess (shot when she was 14; she plays a teenage skater in the same grade as 17-year-old Casey, who's played by then-18 Michelle Trachtenberg); not averted at all for Scream 4 or Until Dawn (or Kingdom Hearts by the time of Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]).
- Department of Redundancy Department: Her first Nashville single ("Love Like Mine") lists the artist as "Hayden Panettiere and Hayden Panettiere."
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Given that she's only about five feet/152.4 cm tall, pretty much all her onscreen relationships fall into this by default. Her real-life then-husband, Wladimir Klitschko, stood at 6'6/198.12 cm, a whopping foot and a half (45.72cm) taller and with the build of a heavyweight champion boxer to match.
- Ink-Suit Actor: If you've ever wanted to see Hayden running around clad only in a towel, the videogame Until Dawn is for you.
- Lifetime Movie of the Week: Has starred in at least three (Lies My Mother Told Me, If You Believe and most notoriously Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy - Custody doesn't count because it was intended for cinemas).
- Ms. Fanservice: Though she's always had fanservicy tendencies on screen, most notably (non-cheerleader relatednote ) in The Architect and Fireflies In The Garden, Nashville pretty much made it official.
- Old Shame: "(at) the mention of her one legitimate (non-Nashville-related) single, 2008’s reggae-lite “Wake Up Call,” she covers her eyes in shame."
- She's also made it clear she is not keen to be reminded of her krumping in Bring It On: All Or Nothing.
- On-Set Injury: While filming Racing Stripes and riding one of the zebras, Hayden was thrown off and ended up hospitalized with a concussion, whiplash and damaged vertebrae.
- The Other Darrin: To Courtney Chase as Sarah Roberts in One Life to Live, Julie Levine as Lizzie in Guiding Light, Anne Hathaway as Red in Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil, and Alyson Stoner as Xion in Kingdom Hearts (who was her Other Darrin as Kairi in the same franchise—it's complicated). She was also Darrin'd as Kate in the Alpha and Omega sequels by Kate Higgins.
- Playing Against Type:
- Scully Box: Often had to stand on something when filming scenes with Zachary Quinto and/or Jack Coleman on Heroes, as they're both over a foot taller than her. Judging from these shots◊ of her and Connie Britton (who's around 5'8"), this may also be the case for Nashville. In the case of Nashville, it doesn't help that ABC often goes out of its way in the promo shoots to hide how much shorter Hayden is than... well, everyone in the cast not called Clare Bowen or Maisy Stella.
- The Shelf of Movie Languishment: She had two long-delayed movies released to American cinemas in 2011, Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil and Fireflies In The Garden (the latter was a victim of the same pre-release limbo that affected All the Boys Love Mandy Lane). The Forger (shot in 2009) also took a while to come out.
- Star-Making Role: Two roles had big impact. Claire Bennet of "save the cheerleader" fame and Sheryl Yoast of "Y'all are actin' like a buncha sissies!" fame.
- Those Two Actors:
- She and Joan Cusack have been in three movies to date (Raising Helen, Ice Princess and Hoodwinked Too! Hood vs. Evil); she has also made three movies with Lauren Bacall, of all people (Too Rich: The Secret Life of Doris Duke, Scooby-Doo! and the Goblin King and The Forger - although in none of them do they share any scenesnote ).
- She's worked a lot with Emma Roberts, mainly in a Neutrogena capacity (Scream 4 excepted). Fun fact: Panettiere is one of the few (if not the only one) to do productions with all three famous Robertses, having also worked with Emma's dad Eric on Heroes and her aunt Julia in Fireflies In The Garden.
- Time-Shifted Actor: The Affair of the Necklace (the young Hilary Swank), Fireflies In The Garden (young Emily Watson), Too Rich: The Secret Life Of Doris Duke (young Lauren Bacall), and most particularly Remember the Titans and If You Believe.
- Typecasting: As a teen cheerleader. She's short and was getting roles of teenagers well into her twenties.
- Vocal Dissonance: Her short stature and youthful appearance sharply contrast her surprisingly deep voice.
- What Could Have Been:
- She and Nicole Kidman were initially cast for the roles in Panic Room that were taken by Jodie Foster and Kristen Stewart before both of them left in pre-production.
- Nashville almost had a reunion with her and one of her Heroes co-stars, as Jack Coleman auditioned; however, Panettiere had already been cast and the producers didn't want their previous gig to get in the way. Ironically, they ended up getting this anyway by casting Burgess Jenkins from Remember the Titans as Juliette's producer - and one of the men she beds.
