Hayden Panettiere

Hayden Lesley Panettiere is an actress, singer, model, and activist, who portrays Kirby Reed in the slasher whodunit, Scream franchise and Samantha Giddings in the horror video game, Until Dawn.

She first appeared in the role in the fourth entry, Scream 4 (2011 film), and appears in a photographic still and voice cameo role in Scream 5 (2022) and will return for Scream 6 (2023 film), reprising the fan-favorite role of Kirby yet again.

Outside of Scream and the horror genre, she is best known for her roles as Claire Bennet on Heroes (2006—2010) and Juliette Barnes on Nashville (2012—2018), for which she received two Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress. She is also known for Bring It On: All or Nothing (2006).

Early life
Panettiere was born in and partly raised in Palisades, New York, the daughter of Lesley R. Vogel, a former soap opera actress, and Alan L. "Skip" Panettiere, a fire department lieutenant. Panettiere is of Italian descent, which her surname meaning "baker" in Italian. She has one younger brother and actor, Jansen Panettiere.

Although Panettiere attended South Orangetown Middle School in New York, she was educated at home from the 9th grade through high. For now, Panettiere is postponing higher education in favor of an acting career.

Developments
Initially, Wes Craven intended for her to progress from a supporting star to the leading cast member of a new trilogy (films 4-6). However, these plans did not come into fruition due to the fourth film's studio interference, lukewarm box office and later, Craven's own 2015 death.

After the franchise was revived after Spyglass Media Group bought the rights in November 2019, her presence in the fifth film drew widespread speculation. She was asked by the new creative director team, Radio Silence to return for a voice cameo of a partygoer at Amber's house in Scream 5 (2022 film).

Initially, they planned for her role to be larger, but did not want to shoe-horn her into the film to pay better respect for the character. An Easter egg also resolved the long-held fan theory of Kirby's survival. Coincidentally, her character's survival came ten years after Craven's own tweet, doubting her death, from January 14, 2012 to January 14, 2022.

Horror filmography
In April 2011, Panettiere appeared in the sequel of the Scream franchise, Scream 4. She portrayed Kirby Reed, alongside Emma Roberts and Rory Culkin. She re-appeared as Kirby in a photograph cameo in Scream 5 (2022 film), and is the voice of a partygoer. She is credited as "Special Thanks".

In May 2022, it was announced she would return for the tentatively titled Scream 6 (2023), twelve years after her initial casting was announced.

Trivia

 * Wes Craven on Hayden's performance:
 * "Hayden is a real powerhouse. Tremendous technical ability. Able to bring enormous emotionalities to something very quickly. Smart. Just so full of life and laughter and fun. And, you know, played this really difficult role as Emma's best friend. And again, brought the picture up so much in her scenes. [...] she just re-affirmed that she is just a really great actress [...] packed into a very small package—but wow, what a powerhouse."
 * She has a Ukrainian daughter, Kaya Evdokia Klitschko (born December 9, 2014), who speaks Russian as a first language. Panettiere once stated she only speaks "Baby Russian".
 * She is founder of a relief fund for Ukraine amid the Ukraine-Russia conflict. The organization is called Hoplon Intl. Their website is https://www.hoplonintl.org.
 * She is only 5'1.
 * Her ex-partner and father to her daughter is former heavyweight professional boxer, Wladimir Klitschko. They dated on-off from 2009 to 2018.
 * Her last name is pronounced "Pan-Hey-Tee-Air" and is the Italian translation of "Baker". Her parents are both of half Italian descent (her father's father and her mother's mother were both the children of Italian immigrants). Her other roots include German and English.
 * Born at 9:20 AM.