6 Must-See Roles of Hayden Panettiere
A career that began at five, approximately 60 jobs, and a sudden farewell at 36. From "Remember the Titans" to "Nashville," six performances that tell the story of Hayden Panettiere's mark on screen.
Her career, which began at the age of five with the daytime soap opera One Life to Live, proved that Hayden Panettiere was born for the screen. She transformed from a precocious child star into a magnetic actress on both the big and small screen: from Disney productions to brave young queen roles, and from there to dramatic performances. She appeared in animated hits like A Bug's Life and sitcom giants like Ally McBeal.
Panettiere worked for so long and so much that when she passed away on Sunday at the age of 36, she left behind a striking resume of approximately 60 credits. Here are six must-see performances.
'Remember the Titans' (2000)
Disney's Remember the Titans brought together future stars, including Ryan Gosling and Donald Faison. Panettiere was just 10 years old when she landed the role of the football-obsessed tomboy Sheryl Yoast: the daughter of T.C. Williams High School's assistant coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton). Based on the true story of a desegregated high school football team in 1971 Virginia, the film pitted Patton against Denzel Washington as two coaches navigating racial tensions in the South; Sheryl was angry on her father's behalf when he was demoted and replaced by Washington.
With her thick Southern accent, messy blonde braids, and baseball T-shirts, many of the film's comedic moments belonged to Panettiere. In her memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning, she recounted almost missing the role because she was considered the "pretty JonBenét Ramsey type," which made her more ambitious in auditions. She described the same job as the "biggest role" of her life: "I had never felt so happy as an actor."
'Ice Princess' (2005)
By 2005, the world knew Panettiere was a Disney darling after Remember the Titans and Tiger Cruise. But the ice skating story Ice Princess, her last Disney Channel movie, showed that the young actress was ready for bigger things. In the film, she plays Gennifer "Gen" Harwood, the reluctant rival of Michelle Trachtenberg's Casey Carlyle; all while contending with her strict mother and even stricter coach Tina (Kim Cattrall).
For the role, which she entered with almost no experience, she said in 2024, "When they gave us six weeks of training, I was like Bambi on ice the first day." "By the end, I was really good."
'Bring It On: All or Nothing' (2006)
Not every teen comedy sequel can be American Pie 2. While Bring It On: All or Nothing bears all the hallmarks of a direct-to-DVD production, it's the only Bring It On spin-off considered a true sequel to the original. Panettiere is smart and electric as Britney Allen, a Pacific Vista cheerleader forced to leave her rich friends and neighborhood to move to the poorer side of Crenshaw Heights.
As in the first film, the tension here is between the snooty rich kids and the acrobatic, gritty underdogs. But Panettiere transforms her "Hip-Hop Barbie" character into a core of self-confidence and emotional vulnerability; stealing the show in a film that also features Solange and Rihanna.
'Heroes' (2006-2010)
The first 15 minutes of Heroes tell the viewer what they're in for: a man about to jump from a building, a professor pursuing his father's mysterious research, a camera girl fleeing the mafia with her son, and an office worker obsessed with kaiju who believes he can turn back time. But who can forget Panettiere's Claire Bennet diving into a wall of flames to save a stranger?
As the NBC series watched strangers around the world confront their powers, Panettiere remained at the heart of the story; her measured and determined performance grounded the viewer in that confusing world full of magical powers and malevolent government agencies. "Save the cheerleader, save the world" is not just a powerful slogan; it's a legacy.
'Scream 4' (2011)
Sometimes people really love know-it-alls. In Scream 4, Panettiere's Kirby Reed is a trivia maniac and a cynical encyclopedia of horror cinema. Wes Craven's attempts to give his last Scream film before his death a millennial coat of paint sometimes grate; but Panettiere's charm makes it impossible to take your eyes off Kirby.
She instantly turned throwaway lines into classics and approached Kirby with such dedication that she became a "final girl" that fans insisted on seeing again. (She reprised the role in Scream VI in 2023.) That unforgettable line she spat after Ghostface challenged her to a trivia duel: "I got it right. Damn it, I was right!"
'Nashville' (2012-2018)
The ABC series Nashville could not have existed without Hayden Panettiere. Aside from her ability to oscillate between comedic intrigue and heartbreaking drama, the show's story was directly drawn from Panettiere's own life and struggles. In her memoir, she described the series as a "traumatic" experience that constantly dug into her life story: "It was so obvious… They weren't doing their homework. They weren't creating new storylines. They were just looking at my life and saying, 'Let's take what she's going through right now and put our own spin on it.'"
Still, Panettiere elevated the material. As country star Juliette Barnes, she transformed a typical prime-time soap opera role into a masterclass in dramatic acting; showing the simmering pain behind Juliette's eyes. It was gracefully done and, let's be honest: it was more than the show deserved from its star.