Hayden Panettiere: 6 Essential Roles

From her first TV role in the daytime soap One Life to Live at the age of five, Hayden Panettiere proved she was born to be onscreen. A precocious child star who grew into a magnetic actor on the big and small screen, she graduated from Disney fare to brassy teen queen roles and dramatic performances. She was a part of animated hits like A Bug’s Life, sitcom juggernauts like Ally McBeal, and more. Panettiere was working so much for so long that when she died on Sunday at just 36 years old, she left behind a staggering resume of nearly 60 credits. Here are six performances that shouldn’t be missed.

• ‘Remember the Titans’ (2000)

  

  Disney’s Remember the Titans featured several future stars, including Ryan Gosling, Scrubs’ Donald Faison, and Panettiere, who was just 10 years old when she landed the role of the spunky football-obsessed tomboy Sheryl Yoast, daughter to T.C. Williams High School assistant coach Bill Yoast (Will Patton). The film, based on the real-life story of an integrated high school football team in 1971 Virginia, starred Patton and Denzel Washington as two coaches navigating racial tension in the South — and Sheryl was angry on her daddy’s behalf after he was demoted and replaced by Washington. With her thick Southern accent and mess of curly blonde braids and baseball tees, Panettiere was responsible for many of the film’s comedic moments, and has a heartfelt arc as Sheryl eventually warms up to Washington and offers him her takes on strategy (and hilariously refuses to be girly with his daughter, saying, “I don’t play with dolls”). In her memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning, Panettiere recalled almost not getting the part because she was deemed the pretty “JonBenét Ramsey type,” which made her even more determined to nail the audition. She also described the job as the “biggest role” of her life. “It was the happiest I’d ever felt as an actor,” she wrote. “If I could go back and do it all over again, I would in a heartbeat.” —Angie Martoccio

• ‘Ice Princess’ (2005)

  

  In 2005, the world already knew that Panettierre was a Disney darling after she charmed audiences in 2000’s Remember the Titans and 2004’s Tiger Cruise. But with the skating flick Ice Princess, her last Disney Channel Original Movie, the teen actor proved she was ready for bigger, and better, things. In the film, Panettiere plays Gennifer “Gen” Harwood, the reluctant foil to the late Michelle Trachtenberg’s Casey Carlyle. She also goes toe-to-toe with none other than Kim Cattrall’s Tina, her tough mom and (even tougher) figure skating coach, as she pulls off her ice skating best — and that was with minimal experience with the sport going in. “First day when they gave us about six weeks to train, I was like Bambi on ice,” Panettierre recalled of the role in 2024. “By the end I actually became really good.” —Maya Georgi

• ‘Bring It On: All or Nothing’ (2006)

  

  Not every teen comedy follow-up can be American Pie 2. But while Bring It On: All or Nothing has all the hallmarks of its direct-to-DVD order, the film is the only Bring It On spinoff that is considered the direct successor of the original. Panettiere is witty and electric as Pacific Vista cheerleader Britney Allen, forced to decamp from her rich friends and neighborhood to live in a low-income side of Crenshaw Heights. Just like the original, the film’s main stakes are tensions between a snobbish, wealthy crew and the scrappy, acrobatic underdogs. But Panettiere turns her Hip-Hop Barbie character into a powerhouse of self assuredness and emotional vulnerability, stealing the show in a film that also includes Solange and Rihanna. And what is movie magic if not convincing an entire generation of young girls that small white women were born to crump? —CT Jones

• ‘Heroes’ (2006-2010)

  

  The first 15 minutes of Heroes quickly clues viewers into what they’re about to watch. There’s a man about to jump off a building, a professor trying to track down his father’s mysterious research, a cam girl trying to outrace the mob with her son, and a kaiju-obsessed office worker who’s convinced he can turn back time. But who can forget the image of Panettiere, playing Claire Bennett, running into a wall of flame to save a stranger? The NBC drama followed strangers around the world as they came to terms with their own unique superpowers and their intertwined stories. But Panettiere remained the focus of the story, turning out measured and determined performances that grounded audiences in the often confusing world of magic powers and evil government agencies. “Save the cheerleader, save the world,” wasn’t just a powerful rallying cry. It’s a legacy. —CTJ

• ‘Scream 4’ (2011)

  

  Sometimes people really love a know-it-all. In Scream 4, Panettiere’s Kirby Reed is a trivia buff and a sarcastic encyclopedia for all things horror films. The last Scream film Wes Craven directed before he died, some of its attempts to give the 1996 hit a millennial coat of paint feel grating; but Panettiere’s charm makes Kirby hard to look away from. She turned throwaway lines into instant classics and approached Kirby with a full-send mentality that made her a breakout final girl fans demanded to see again. (She reprised the role in Scream VI in 2023.) Kirby Reed will always be remembered in the Scream universe for knowing her shit. “I got it right,” she spits out after Ghostface challenges her to a trivia battle. “I was fucking right!” —CTJ

• ‘Nashville’ (2012-2018)

  

  The ABC series Nashville could not exist without Hayden Panettiere. Yes, her ability to toggle between comic intrigue and heart-wrenching drama was top-notch. But beyond that, Nashville’s storyline was taken directly from Panettiere’s life and struggles. In her memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning, Panettiere called the series a “traumatizing” experience that was constantly excavating her life story. “It was very obvious… They weren’t doing their homework,” she said at the time. “They weren’t creating new storylines. They were just looking at my life and going, ‘Oh, let’s just take what she’s going through and put our little spin on it.’ And then, ta-da! It’s done and done.” It’s a disturbing history the series will never shake. Still, Panettiere rose to the occasion. As country star Juliette Barnes, she elevated what could have been a typical nighttime-soap role into a dramatic master class, showing the pain simmering behind Juliette’s eyes. It was tastefully done, and honestly, more than the show deserved from its star. —CTJ