Hayden Panettiere

  When NBC's critically-acclaimed show Heroes premiered last year, amidst all of the special effects and exciting plot twists, there was one character who really stood out from the crowd: High school cheerleader Claire Bennet, portrayed by then-seventeen-year-old actress Hayden Panettiere. The role helped give Heroes more viewers than any other program on NBC and immediately catapulted the young actress to stardom. So when Hayden turned 18 on August 21st of this year, other than men around the world celebrating, she scored a feature photo shoot in that month's issue of FHM.

  Born August 21, 1989 in Palisades, New York, Hayden was an actress before she could even speak; at only 11 months of age, she appeared in an advertisement for a Playskool toy train, and her career hasn't slowed down since. Hayden followed in the footsteps of her mother, who was a soap opera actress herself “ by appearing in the ABC soap One Life to Live and giving a critically-acclaimed performance as a girl with leukemia in the CBS soap Guiding Light. She also had a leading role in the 2006 direct-to-DVD release Bring It On: All Or Nothing and a major role in Ally McBeal as the title character's daughter. Also a talented voice actress, she provided the voice for Dot in A Bug's Life and for Kairi in the popular Kingdom Hearts video game series. Oddly enough, her voice work actually earned her a Grammy nomination in 1999 for Best Spoken Word Album for Children for her work in a children's read-along book based on A Bug's Life. The Grammy nod may well have stoked her interest in pursuing music, because Hayden has been working on a repeatedly-delayed album, titled Falling Down, for well over a year. Currently scheduled for a February 2008 release, little is known about how far along the album is or what type of sound listeners should expect to hear from the actress.



  Like any celebrity, Hayden's personal life has been subject to an inordinate amount of media scrutiny and gossip. She has been romantically linked to Heroes co-star Milo Ventimiglia as well as Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County alumnus Stephen Colletti. At the 2007 Emmy Awards, Hayden allegedly confronted a US Weekly writer who had penned a story claiming that she had broken up with Colletti. According to a TV Guide reporter who witnessed the incident, Hayden threatened to harm the writer before being whisked away by her publicist who calmly told her not on the red carpet. Whatever the truth behind the story, it's clear that though Hayden may be small (she's only 5-foot-1), she's got heart!

  Hayden can be seen in Heroes every Monday night on NBC at 9PM EST/PST. Her MySpace profile can be found here.

About the author:

  Curtis is a writer specializing in politics, popular media and the entertainment industry. Based out of Vancouver, Canada, he graduated from Kwantlen University College with an Arts degree in 2006 and is now a contributing editor at TrendPimp magazine. His online portfolio can be found at CurtisSpring.com.