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.
The Independent has reached out to her representatives for comment.
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.
open image in galleryOther 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.
Panettiere first started appearing in commercials at 11 months old and went on to work as a child actor on the soaps One Life to Live and Guiding Light, before roles in Ally McBeal, Malcolm in the Middle and other television productions.
open image in galleryIn May 2026, Panettiere published her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, in which she wrote about her experiences as a child star and discussed addiction, postpartum depression, trauma, domestic abuse and motherhood. In the book, she wrote that when she lost her right front tooth at the age of eight, her mom took her to a dentist to set her up with a fake tooth.
“A nice dental assistant took a mold of my top teeth, and Dr. Bob explained to me and Mom that a flipper is a retainer with an acrylic ‘palate,’” Panettiere wrote. “However, because a flipper doesn’t straighten anything, there are no wires. Instead, stuck to the front of the palate is an artificial tooth that fits squarely where the missing tooth used to be. When I put the flipper in my mouth, no one would know I’d lost a tooth.”
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open image in galleryHer death comes more than three years after the death of her younger brother, actor Jansen Panettiere, who died in February 2023 aged 28 from an enlarged heart. “He was my only sibling, and it was my job to protect him,” she told People magazine at the time. “When I lost him, I felt like I lost half of my soul.”
She described how she “ballooned out” after his death, gaining 40 pounds in a short period of time. “It didn’t matter what I did, what I ate. I know stress and cortisol running through your body can do that. Now I think my body was protecting itself, shielding itself from the world.”