Hayden Leslie Panettiere was born on 21st August 1989 in Palisades, New York. She still lives in New York with her parents, Lesley and Skip Panettiere, and younger brother Jansen Panettiere. Her mom got her started in the business by doing commercials when she was just 11 months old. Then, at only 4 1/2, she was cast on the soap opera One Life to Live, where she remained until 1997. Since then, she has gone on to appear in many feature films and TV movies. But she is probably best known in the United States for her role as "Claire" on the hit TV show Heroes.

As for movies, Hayden starred in Remember the Titans with Denzel Washington and Joe Somebody with Tim Allen. When Hayden isn't working, she enjoys singing, dancing, horseback riding, gymnastics, taking piano lessons, and swimming.

She has been involved with many animated movies, beginning with A Bug's Life as "Dot", later to follow was Dinosaur, the video game Kingdom Hearts, and The Mark of Kri. Her next movie is Racing Stripes, a partly animated film, but Hayden will star in the human role; other cast members include the voices of Whoopi Goldberg, Dustin Hoffman, Joshua Jackson and Mandy Moore.

In 2003, she joined the likes of Jessica Lange, Tom Wilkinson, and Clancy Brown in Jane Anderson's Normal a film about a Midwestern husband and father who announces his plans to have a sex-change operation. In July of the same year, Hayden appeared in a John Guare play, "Landscape of the Body", for the Williamstown theater festival in Williamstown, Massachusetts.



Began her acting career at 11 months when she appeared in a commercial for Playskool. 2000: Childstarlets.com's Actress of the Year. 7/21/98: Soap Opera Magazine's star of the week. In "The Guiding Light" (1952), for Hayden's character Lizzie's battle with leukemia, the show received a Special Recognition Award from The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for bringing national awareness of the disease to the attention of daytime viewers. 2000: Was nominated for a Grammy for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for A Bug's Life (1998) Read-Along. Her last name was printed wrong in an issue of the "Discovery Girls" magazine where she was considered an "Exceptional Tween". Elder sister of Jansen Panettiere, with whom she co-starred in Tiger Cruise (2004) (TV). Hayden considers him "the greatest present our dad and mom ever gave me". Her last name is pronounced "Pan-Uh-Tee-Air-Ee"; the Italian translation is "Baker". Is best friends with Daniella Morris. Is a vegetarian. In 2007, Forbes Magazine estimated her earnings for the year at $2 million. Voted #5 in FHM 100 Sexiest 2008. Ranked #13 on the Maxim magazine Hot 100 of 2008 list. Broke up with Milo Ventimiglia on Valentine's Day, 2009. Is being considered for the role of Ariel Moore in Footloose (2011) along with Miley Cyrus, Julianne Hough and Amanda Bynes. She loves bathing suits and never has a problem with wearing one for the camera. Boyfriend: Wladimir Klitschko.