The Nashville and Heroes actress, whose six-season run on a country music drama made her a fixture of music television, has died.
Hayden Panettiere, the actor who spent six seasons playing an up-and-coming country singer on the ABC drama Nashville, has died at age 36. A representative confirmed the news to ABC News, describing her as “an incredible light and a force of nature.” No cause of death was given.
Panettiere’s central music-related role came in Nashville, where she played Juliette Barnes across the series’ entire run from 2012 to 2018. The show placed her inside a fictional country music industry, with storylines built around performance and career ambition.
Before Nashville, Panettiere broke through as Claire Bennet on NBC’s Heroes, appearing in 73 episodes of the series. Her earlier work included voice roles in A Bug’s Life and Dinosaur, a part in Remember the Titans, and later film appearances in I Love You, Beth Cooper, Scream 4, and Scream VI.
Panettiere had been open about mental illness and substance abuse in her 2026 memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning. Her brother Jansen died in 2023. She is survived by her daughter.
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