Hayden Panettiere Biography

Actor

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Now known as the wee, blonde cheerleader in TV's fantasy series Heroes, actress Hayden Panettiere is a veteran performer who spent her childhood on the daytime dramas One Life to Live and The Guiding Light. Panettiere grew up outside of New York City and has been in the entertainment business since infancy. Modelling led to commercials and acting gigs, and she spent the 1990s appearing in One Life to Live (1994-97, as Sarah Roberts) and The Guiding Light (1996-2000, as Lizzie Spaulding). Primetime TV viewers then got to know her for regular appearances on Ally McBeal (as Calista Flockhart's daughter, 2002), Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (episodes in 2001 and 2005) and Malcolm in the Middle (as Frankie Muniz's occasional love interest, 2003-05). In feature films she has had notable roles in Remember the Titans (2000, starring Denzel Washington), Raising Helen (2004, starring Kate Hudson) and Bring It On: All or Nothing (2006), and done voice work in such films as A Bug's Life (1998) and Dinosaur (2000). Panettiere became hot property in 2006, thanks to her role as Claire Bennet, the indestructible teenager central to the plot of the hit series Heroes ("save the cheerleader, save the world").