Hayden Panettiere

The 5' 1" American actress and singer, Hayden Leslie Panettiere, or famously known as Hayden Panettiere, was born on August 21, 1989 in Palisade, New York to parents Skip Panettiere and Lesley Vogel. Her father, Skip, was a lieutenant in a fire department and her mother, Lesley, used to be a soap opera actress. Panettiere has a younger brother, Jansen Panettiere, that also works as an actor.

When Panettiere was 11 months old, her mother introduced her to the showbiz by having her to appear in commercials. Her first appearance was for Playskool's advertisement. Few years later, in 1994, she was cast as Sarah Roberts on the ABC soap opera, "One Life to Live", where she remained until 1997. Panettierre first caught people attention when she portrayed Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Spaulding, an abused girl who battled leukemia, on the CBS daytime-drama, "Guiding Light" (1996-2000). 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 while at the same time scored Panettiere a Young Star Award nomination for the category of Best Young Actress/Performance in Daytime TV Series in 2000. In regards of her performance as Lizzie, Panettiere simply stated,"When the camera comes on, I am not Hayden any more, I am Lizzie!"