Panettiere is best known for her role as cheerleader Claire Bennet in Heroes and country singer Juliette Barnes in Nashville
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Hayden Panettiere, best known for her roles in Heroes, Nashville, and the Scream franchise, has died aged 36.
“It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden,” Panettiere’s father, Skip said in a statement to ABC News. “She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her — and to the millions who watched her onscreen.”
No cause of death was announced, and her publicist Kasey Kitchen told NBC News that her death was being investigated.
The Independent has reached out to her representatives for comment.
Panettiere was born on 21 August 1989 in Palisades, New York, to actress Lesley Vogel and fire department captain Skip Panettiere. She began appearing in commercials at 11 months old and went on to work as a child actor on One Life to Live and Guiding Light.
Panettiere became one of the most recognisable young actors on American television after being cast as cheerleader Claire Bennet in the NBC superhero drama Heroes, which ran from 2006 to 2010. She later played country singer Juliette Barnes in Nashville, a role that earned her two Golden Globe nominations.
She was also known for playing Kirby Reed in the Scream franchise, where she first appeared in 2011’s Scream 4. She went on to reprise the role in 2023’s Scream VI, marking her return to acting after a four-year break.
Other film roles included appearances in Remember the Titans, Raising Helen, Ice Princess and I Love You, Beth Cooper, as well as the television film Amanda Knox: Murder on Trial in Italy.
In May this year, Panettiere spoke to The Independent on how being a child star affected her, saying: “It’s not healthy to receive so much praise as a child.”
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“When I got to an age where I became somebody the paparazzi were interested in, and the media wanted all the gory details… it broke my heart that people thought negatively about me,” she said.
She became a mother in December 2014, when she and former fiancé, Ukrainian heavyweight boxer Wladimir Klitschko, welcomed their daughter, Kaya. Panettiere later gave Klitschko full custody of Kaya in 2018 while she was struggling with addiction and postpartum depression. She spoke about the decision again in 2022, telling Facebook Watch’s Red Table Talk podcast that signing the papers was “the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever had to do in my life”.
“I think there’s been this very common misconception that I just gave up my child,” she said in an interview with podcaster Jay Shetty in May. “That could not be farther from the truth.”