Hayden Panettiere dies at 36: Heroes, Nashville and Until Dawn star

Actress Hayden Panettiere has died at 36. Her publicist and her father, Skip Panettiere, confirmed the news on August 16, 2026, after a career that made her a familiar name through Heroes, Nashville, Kingdom Hearts, and Until Dawn.

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Her publicist and Skip Panettiere confirmed her death on August 16, 2026. No cause has been released, and the investigation is still ongoing.

In a family statement, Skip Panettiere and Hayden Panettiere’s family said they were “deeply saddened,” called her “an incredible light and a force of nature,” and asked for privacy.

She’d been working since childhood, for more than three decades, moving from early TV into dramas, films, and games, and a lot of people knew her best as Claire Bennet and Juliette Barnes.

Gamers knew Hayden Panettiere as Kairi in Kingdom Hearts and as Samantha “Sam” Giddings in Supermassive’s 2015 Until Dawn, where she provided both the voice and the likeness.

If those were the roles that brought her into your life, this is a loss you’ll feel across TV, film, and games.

Hayden Panettiere’s death comes three months after the May 2026 release of her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, where she wrote about growing up in the industry, addiction, postpartum depression, and child stardom. It also follows the February 2023 death of her brother Jansen from an enlarged heart.