US actress Hayden Panettiere, best known for her roles in TV series Heroes and Nashville, has died at the age of 36.
Her father Skip described her as an "incredible light and a force of nature" in a statement announcing her passing.
Panettiere's career spanned three decades with a string of roles in other hit TV shows and films, including the Scream horror film franchise and romantic comedy Raising Helen.
Panettiere with her parents and younger brother in 2007
Born in August 1989, Panettiere was raised in Palisades, New York, by parents Lesley Vogel, an actress and producer, and Skip, a former firefighter.
She had one brother, Jansen Panettiere, who died aged 28 in 2023.
Beginning her career as a child actor, Hayden Panettiere was just four years old when she was cast on the popular US soap opera One Life to Live.
On The Tonight Show with Jay Leno as a seven-year-old
Her credits from the late 1990s and early 2000s also included roles in the animated film A Bug's Life, as well as TV shows Ally McBeal and Malcolm in the Middle.
She starred alongside Kate Hudson in the 2004 film Raising Helen and was beloved by a generation of fans for playing Britney Allen in teen cheerleading movie Bring It On: All or Nothing in 2006.
On the red carpet with actress Kate Hudson in 2004
Panettiere's big career breakthrough was in 2006
Her big breakthrough came the same year, when she was cast as another cheerleader – this time with the power of rapid cellular regeneration – in the highly popular sci-fi series Heroes.
The show ran until 2010 and earned a number of awards and nominations, including Emmys and Golden Globes.
Panettiere played Claire Bennet, a cheerleader with healing powers, in Heroes