Forgotten Hayden Panettiere Movie Performances Worth Revisiting

Hayden Panettiere died on August 16, 2026, at 36. It's a tragic loss and a career cut short much too soon, and as is the case when we lose a talented filmmaker or performer, we turn to their body of work to memorialize them. Many obituaries are leading with Heroes (" save the cheerleader, save the world") or her more recent role in Nashville.

But she started acting quite young and has several incredibly strong film roles, so there are plenty of early works you can revisit, too.

Here are four worth another look.

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A Bug's Life

Panettiere was only 9 years old when she landed a part in Pixar's second feature, the often-forgotten A Bug's Life. She played Princess Dot, a little royal ant who couldn't fly. Directed by John Lasseter and co-directed by Andrew Stanton, the film is an exploration of collective action against tyranny. It's also really cute.

On the surface, Dot is just the little-sister sidekick to the adult characters, but she's also the story's heart. She's the only person who believes in Flik (Dave Foley) from the beginning, and she helps inspire the ants to fight back against the grasshoppers.

Panettiere fit in because everyone on the creative side wanted to play. She later said of the Pixar team, "When they come in here, they don't act like adults really much of the time. They act like kids, like they have fun. They're goofy" (via YouTube).

In a December 1998 interview with the Las Vegas Sun about the film's animated credit-sequence bloopers, Lasseter said, "Our actors are so good at improvisation." Creativity and fun were a part of the whole film.

The performance also earned Panettiere a Grammy nomination for the film's read-along album, making her one of the youngest nominees in the category (Yahoo News). A Bug's Life sits in the middle of most Pixar rankings, including our own, but now would be a great time to revisit Dot.

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Ice Princess

Could you become a star skater through the power of math? Ice Princess posits you could. In this Disney fan favorite, Michelle Trachtenberg plays an awkward nerd named Casey who decides to try skating to find her place. Panettiere plays Gen, a junior champion about to be replaced, daughter of Casey's coach.

That could have easily skewed toward antagonism, and while they do begin as rivals, Gen becomes a sympathetic character, smothered by her mother's ambition until she tells her she's quitting.

Trachtenberg died in Feb. 2025, so there's a particular melancholy to this film now. The sports comedy/drama was directed by Tim Fywell, based on a story by Meg Cabot and Hadley Davis.

Panettiere did most of her own skating in the film. She said in 2005, "The gymnastics really helped with the ability and comfort of throwing my body in the air" (via liveaboutdotcom). She added, "I actually taught myself a scratch spin, which is the really fast blur spins. There's one at the end of the performance in the movie that I do, and they actually show it. It's me, and I'm so excited! But I did learn most of my tricks, except for the triples, for which I had a brilliant double."

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Bring It On: All or Nothing

It's too iconic not to include. Bring It On: All or Nothing is the third in the Bring It On series and was released direct-to-DVD in August 2006. Panettiere plays Britney Allen, a goody-two-shoes cheer captain whose family has to start over again at Crenshaw Heights. There, Solange Knowles' Camille runs the cheer squad.

Look, the movie isn't critically acclaimed or anything, but if you bring up that krumping scene, most movie lovers will at least have some passing familiarity with the music-less dance sequence. She's fully committed, and it's a little goofy and commonly memed.

Universal hired the Talauega Brothers (two producers behind David LaChapelle's 2005 krumping doc RIZE) plus music-video choreographer Tanisha Scott to build the dance segments. It's still one of the 2000s teen-movie titles people love.

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Remember the Titans

When she was 10 years old, a tiny Panettiere stole hearts as the devoted daughter of a high school assistant football coach (Will Patton), who is initially at odds with head coach Boone (Denzel Washington). And she totally holds her own in the sports film.

This isn't necessarily a forgotten film, as it's generally beloved by sports drama fans, but you may have forgotten that Panettiere is in this one since there are so many familiar faces in the cast, including Ryan Gosling, Donald Faison, Kate Bosworth, and more.

When Panettiere was 11, she visited with Rosie O'Donnell to promote the film, remarkably well-spoken as a child actor who had already had several big-screen appearances, though she described this one as her biggest yet.

"I really enjoyed it," she said of the film and role. "It was one that I could really be myself with."

In ESPN's 20th-anniversary oral history of the film, Panettiere said Washington spent her close-ups making faces at her from off-camera, trying to break her.

“Denzel loved to try to make me laugh when the camera was on me. There's the scene when he comes to our house to speak to Will Patton's character about him getting the head-coaching job, and I say, "We've got 11 offers and certainly no time for you." I'm supposed to be very serious in the scene, and during my close-up, every time I opened the door he would make funny faces at me, trying to make me laugh. It became a game to see if I could keep a straight face or not. To this day, I'm not sure if he ever let me get through one take without doing that.”

Mike Fisher, the film's football coordinator, told ESPN, "She's someone, obviously she didn't play football, but she was someone when we were filming the movie that I'm like, 'This girl is going to be a big star.'"

What's your favorite Panettiere role?