Hayden Leslie Panettiere

Career - Acting
Panettiere began modeling when she was four months old. She first appeared in commercials at 11 months, beginning with an advertisement for Playboy. She landed a role as Sarah Roberts on the ABC soap opera One Life to Live (1994–1997), and she followed that up by playing the part Elizabeth "Lizzie" Spaulding on the CBS soap opera Guiding Light (1997–2000). While on Guiding Light, Panettiere's character Lizzie battled leukemia. For drawing the attention daytime viewers to the disease, and for improving national awareness, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society gave her its Special Recognition Award.
Panettiere became most prominent 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 as either the 'popular cheerleader' type or just 'the blonde.'"
She has appeared in over a dozen full-length feature films, several made-for-TV movies. For her performance in Lifetime Television's 1999 TV movie If You Believe she was nominated Young Artist Award for Young Actress Age Ten or Under in the category Best Performance in a TV Movie or Pilot. She provided the voice for Dot in A Bug's Life. She played the role Coach Yoast's daughter, Sheryl, in the 2000 Disney film Remember The Titans. In addition, she voiced Kairi in the Kingdom Hearts series video games for the PlayStation 2. Panettiere appeared on Fox's Ally McBeal as Ally McBeal's daughter, and had a recurring guest role on Malcolm in the Middle and guest starred in Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. She starred in Bring It On: All or Nothing as a cheerleader and had a supporting role as Adelaide Bourbon in the recently released independent film Shanghai Kiss. She appeared in the Disney Channel film Tiger Cruise, in Raising Helen as the adolescent niece, and in Ice Princess as a popular student and rival skater.