Hayden Panettiere’s 15 Best Movies And TV Shows

Hayden Panettiere‘s best movies and TV shows reveal an actress who got a huge start as a child actor before becoming one of the more successful television actors of the last decade. Panettiere started out her career as a second-generation star, her mother (Lesley Vogel) was a former soap opera actress. She was homeschooled throughout high school and had private tutors to allow her to finish her high school diploma while she was acting full-time as a teenager. This is the result of her acting in commercials since she was eleven months old.

Panettiere was only five when she got her first recurring acting role in the daytime soap opera One Life to Live, and she has been acting ever since. While she has mostly stuck to major TV roles, she has also worked on some film throughout her career as well, with roles in a Pixar movie, the inspirational sports drama Remember the Titans, and the horror franchise Scream. However, she is best known for TV, with roles in Heroes and Nashville as the highlights of her young career.

15

I Love You, Beth Cooper (2009)

Hayden Panettiere Played Beth Cooper

In 2009, Chris Columbus (Home Alone) directed Hayden Panettiere in a teen romantic comedy based on the novel by Larry Doyle (who also wrote the screenplay). Paul Rust stars as valedictorian Denis Cooverman, a young man who admits in his speech on graduation day his love for head cheerleader Beth Cooper (Panettiere). However, he also taunts the rich snob, the bully, and Beth’s Army soldier boyfriend. After he invites Beth to a party at his house, the people he taunted show up looking for revenge.

While the film received a terrible critical rating (13% on Rotten Tomatoes), audiences had a better opinion of the film with a 32% Popcornmeter score. The main complaints went toward the script itself but the acting was given mostly a pass. Panettiere delivered a solid performance as Beth Cooper, showing compassion and care in a role often played off as snobby and conceited.

14

Bring It On: All Or Nothing (2006)

Hayden Panettiere Played Britney Allen

Bring it On got its start in 2000 with the cheerleader movie starring Kirsten Dunst and Eliza Dushku. After the success of that film, sequels arrived with new cast members, and the third movie in the series, All or Nothing, brought Hayden Panettiere into the starring role alongside Solange Knowles-Smith. Panettiere stars as Britney, the cheerleading captain of her high school team and the girlfriend of the school’s star quarterback.

She is also very rich, but when her dad loses his job, her life crashes down around her when she is forced to move to a working-class school, and she has to reinvent herself in a new hierarchy. The film is not rated as high as the first movie in the franchise, but it is still better than some of the DTV releases that followed it. While it received almost no attention from critics, Panettiere continued to show her acting talent in leading roles, this cheerleading part coming the same year she joined Heroes as a cheerleader.

13

Hoodwinked Too! Hood Vs. Evil (2011)

Hayden Panettiere Played Red Puckett

While the films were box office bombs and critical disappointments, there is something charming about both Hoodwinked movies. The first film was an animated version of Rashomon, with a crime taking place and everyone telling their side of the story before the truth was revealed. The second movie was a little more straightforwardas an animated thriller. The second also saw the recasting of two major roles, one of which saw Hayden Panettiere replacing Anne Hathaway as Little Red Riding Hood.

In Hoodwinked Too! Hood Vs. Evil, Panettiere voices Red, who is now working as a secret agent alongside Granny (Glenn Close) and Wolf W. Wolf (Patrick Warburton). They race to save the kidnapped Hansel and Gretel, only to find the two are not as innocent as they act. As mentioned, the movie was a box office failure and reviews were terrible, with only an 11% Rotten Tomatoes score. However, critic reviews are not everything, and this is a charming movie that allows her voice acting talents to shine.

12

Amber Alert (2024)

Hayden Panettiere Played Jacqueline / Jaq

In 2024, Hayden Panettiere stars in the mystery thriller Amber Alert, the story of a rideshare that turns terrifying. Panettiere is Jaq, who is on a rideshare with Shane (Tyler James Williams) when they get an Amber Alert on their phones about a child abduction. They then realize that the car in front of them matches the description of the kidnappers. The two then take off on a race against time to save the kidnapped child, while realizing the inherent dangers of the kidnappers themselves.

The movie has average reviews from critics and audiences alike, sitting at 63% fresh and 86% on the Popcornmeter on Rotten Tomatoes. The positive reviews say that things go a little long in the movie, but it is worth the watch, especially for the tension-filled script and the performances by Panettiere and Williams. As for the audience reviews, most praised its tension and exciting storyline, with some saying it was a B movie that was raised thanks to the acting performances.

11

Guiding Light (1996-2000)

Hayden Panettiere Played Lizzie Spaulding

Hayden Panettiere started out her career as a child actor on the daytime soap opera One Life to Live. After leaving that soap, she took a second role in a different soap, this one CBS’s Guiding Light. She played the character Lizzie Spaulding for 44 episodes in one of the main roles. While it was a main part, the actress was only seven when she joined the cast. Spaulding is the daughter of Phillip Spaulding and Beth Raines, born onscreen and then rapidly aged when Panettiere joined the cast.

Panettiere was the first actress to play the role after the original baby. She was on the soap opera until 2000, where she was then replaced by MacKenzie Mauzy, Allison Hirschlag, Crustal Hunt, and Emme Rylan. The last actress to play the role is actually eight years older than Panettiere. The soap opera lasted for 72 seasons before it was canceled in 2009, and Lizzie lasted until the soap opera finally went off the air.

10

Heroes Reborn (2015-2016)

Hayden Panettiere Played Claire Bennet

In 2015, NBC decided to revive the series Heroes and bring back most of the surviving cast members for Heroes Reborn. This included bringing back Hayden Panettiere, although she dies while giving birth in the new series. The new series saw several people with superpowers who had to save the world, even as they were on the run as vigilantes wanted by the law. While the series only lasted for 13 episodes and one season, it was still an interesting return for the franchise.

The rebooted series picked up a 53 out of 100 score on Metacritic, which means mixed to average reviews, and a 42% score on Rotten Tomatoes. One big difference between Heroes Reborn and the original Heroes was that it was made as a close-ended series with a beginning, middle, and end, rather than the long-running format of the original series, which ran out of steam by the final season. What really hurt was that actors like Hayden Panettiere only got small archive roles and did not return.

9

Dinosaur (2000)

Hayden Panettiere Played Suri

In 2000, Disney Animation released the live-action/animated film Dinosaur. This film follows a young Iguanodon (D.B. Sweeney) adopted by a family of lemurs on a tropical island after a meteor impact. They then set out to find a new home with another herd of dinosaurs while dealing with that group’s harsh leader. Hayden Panettiere voices a member of the lemur family, a young, fun-loving character named Suri, Yar’s (Ossie Davis) granddaughter, and Pilo’s (Alfre Woodard) daughter.

This was a strange time in Disney Animation’s releases, after the huge success of the 1990s but in a lull before its resurgence in the late 2000s. Critics gave the film average reviews, with a 65% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The biggest complaints were about the plot compared to other Disney Animation releases. Still, the biggest praise went to its visuals, some of the best CGI animation of that era. It went on to pick up five Annie Awards nominations.

8

One Life To Live (1994-1996)

Hayden Panettiere Played Sarah Roberts

Hayden Panettiere got her big first role as a five-year-old on the daytime soap opera One Life to Live. This was in 1994, where she played the character of Sarah Roberts. While only five, this was still considered a “main role” on the soap opera as the daughter of Tina Lord and Cord Roberts. She was actually the second recasting for the role after child actors Alexa and Zoe Fisher played Sarah as infants and Courtney Chase replaced them in 1993 as a toddler. In 1994, Panettiere took the role.

Panettiere only played the role from 1994 to 1997 before leaving the soap opera to take on another child role on Guiding Light. She lasted until 1997 when the storyline had her mother move to Baltimore. After Panettiere left, the character was gone until 2003 when Shanelle Workman took on the role as a teenager. Justis Bolding took on the role from 2007-2009 and the character has been missing from the soap opera ever since.

7

Scream 4 (2011)

Hayden Panettiere Played Kirby Reed

Hayden Panettiere joined the cast of the Scream franchise in Scream 4. In this film, she played Kirby Reed, a horror film fan and the best friend of Sidney Prescott’s (Neve Campbell) cousin Jill (Emma Roberts). This was a slight reboot of the franchise, moving things into the future and bringing in the next generation while still holding onto the past lead characters (Campbell, Courteney Cox, and David Arquette). The film received a 60% Rotten Tomatoes score and helped spawn more sequels with Panettiere returning.

This was the start for Panettiere, as her Kirby Reed went from being a horror fan pursued by the new Ghostface to a law enforcement officer looking to stop these serial killers in the future. It was a solid introduction for her character, and it proved that the franchise could live on beyond Campbell’s Sidney Prescott and move into the future with new stories and heroes.

6

A Bug’s Life (1998)

Hayden Panettiere Played Princess Dot

In 1998, at the age of nine, Hayden Panettiere took on a voice role in one of Pixar’s first movies, A Bug’s Life. This was Pixar’s second-ever animated movie, following Toy Story. It is a movie about a misfit ant named Flik who wants to find some warriors who can help him save his ant colony from a protection racket run by some tough-guy grasshoppers. The problem is that his help comes in the form of Circus Bugs. It is based on the fable, The Ant and the Grasshopper.

This is one of the most overlooked Pixar animated movies, one that few people talk about when ranking their favorite from the animation studio. This is shocking since the movie was a huge success, making $363 million at the box office. It also has a 92% fresh Rotten Tomatoes score, showing it was also a critical darling. Hayden Panettiere voices Princess Dot, the Queen’s younger daughter and Flik’s good friend.

5

Scream VI (2023)

Hayden Panettiere Played Kirby Reed

In 2023, Neve Campbell stepped away from the Scream franchise, and the movies looked for a new leading scream queen. While Courteney Cox returned, the main cast was from the last movie, with Jenna Ortega still in a major role, along with Melissa Barrera, Mason Gooding, and Jasmin Savoy Brown among the returning cast members from Scream V. This was the only Scream movie not to include Campbell, who refused to return because of a dispute over her salary.

As for Panettiere, she was back as Kirby Reed, one of the survivors of the Woodsboro murders in 2011, who now works as an FBI agent. She first appeared in Scream 4, which made it her second appearance. In her first appearance, she was a target of the Ghostface killer, but she made it out alive, although that wasn’t revealed until she was seen in a photo in the fifth movie. In Scream VI, she was back in person as an FBI agent and a new fan favorite. The sixth movie has a 76% Rotten Tomatoes fresh score.

4

Heroes (2006-2010)

Hayden Panettiere Played Claire Bennet

While she had been acting since she was five in movies and TV shows, it was her role in the 2006 science fiction superhero series Heroes that Hayden Panettiere became a star. The entire tagline of the first season was “Save the cheerleader, save the world.” The cheerleader in the series was, in fact, Panettiere’s Claire Bennet. She is, as the tagline suggests, a high school cheerleader, and she has the superpowers to spontaneously regenerate.

Claire was in more Heroes episodes than any other character, appearing in 72 total installments (and one more with archival footage). Sadly, she dies in Heroes Reborn, but that does not negate her importance to the original series. She received praise for her performance in Heroes and remains one of the most memorable characters from the series. Heroes lasted four seasons and 77 episodes and won several awards from the Emmys, BAFTAs, and Golden Globes.

3

Remember The Titans (2000)

Hayden Panettiere Played Sheryl Yoast

In 2000, Hayden Panettiere took on a role in the inspirational sports movie, Remember the Titans. Denzel Washington stars in this movie as a Black coach hired to lead the football team at a newly integrated Virginia high school of predominantly white players. This causes problems when the school names him the head coach over the established coach who was already there. The story is based on the true story of Herman Boone, who had to bring a team together in the face of racial drama.

Hayden Panettiere has the supporting role of Sheryl Yoast in the movie, the daughter of Coach Bill Yoast, the man who lost out on the head coaching job to Herman Boone, only to stay on as an assistant any way. The role had her dealing with the racial problems as she saw how the demotion affected her dad. The film has a 71% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It also won Outstanding Motion Picture from the NAACP Image Awards.

2

Nashville (2012-2018)

Hayden Panettiere Played Juliette Barnes

While Hayden Panettiere is best known for her role on Heroes, she turned in a better performance on the drama series Nashville. This series, airing on ABC, followed fictional country music singers in Nashville as they fought for success. Connie Britton stars as Rayna Jaymes, a legendary country singer who is seeing her fame starting to fade. On the other end, Panettiere stars as Juliette Barnes, a young rising star who is seeing her fame start to rise at the same time.

The series lasted for six seasons and 124 episodes. While Panettiere was one of the main stars throughout the show’s entire run, Britton left after the fifth season and was only a guest in the sixth season. As expected, while Juliette hits it big to replace Rayna on the country charts, there is always someone waiting behind her to take her spot. The second and third seasons had perfect 100% Rotten Tomatoes scores and Panettiere earned two Golden Globe nominations for her performance.

1

Ally McBeal (2002)

Hayden Panettiere Played Maddie Harrington

In 2002, Hayden Panettiere joined the cast of Ally McBeal. At the age of 13, the actress signed on for the final fifth season as Maddie Harrington, the daughter of Calista Flockhart’s Ally McBeal. The series is a legal comedy drama about Ally, who works for a Boston law firm, but the main story focuses on the personal and romantic lives of the lawyers who work there. The show aired on Fox from 1997 to 2002 and featured stars like Jane Krakowski, Courtney Thorne-Smith, Robert Downey Jr., and James Marsden.

The big change in the fifth and final season saw Maddie (who was 10 in the show’s world) show up and claim to be Ally’s daughter (a mix-up at an egg bank from years before where Ally dropped off her eggs). The rest of the season sees Ally trying to figure out how to be a mother to Maddie, and it is her daughter who convinces her to leave for New York City, ending the series. At only 13, Hayden Panettiere proved she was a star in the making.