The gaming world is mourning today alongside Hollywood. Hayden Panettiere, the actress who voiced Hannah Washington in the cult-favourite horror game Until Dawn, died on Sunday, August 16, 2026. She was 36.
"It is with profound sadness that we share the tragic passing of our beloved Hayden. She was an incredible light and a force of nature who brought immeasurable love and joy to all who knew her, and to the millions who watched her onscreen," her representative said in a statement.
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The role that brought her into gaming
For gamers, Panettiere's name is tied directly to Supermassive Games' 2015 interactive horror title Until Dawn. She played Hannah Washington, one of the central characters whose fate sits at the heart of the game's branching narrative. The performance leaned heavily on motion capture and voice work, and it landed. Hannah became one of the more emotionally complex characters in the game, and Panettiere's delivery gave the role weight that a lesser performance would have missed.
Until Dawn went on to become a landmark in the interactive drama genre, and a remake developed by Ballistic Moon released in 2024 brought her performance to a new generation of players. The game's legacy is real, and her contribution to it is a permanent part of gaming history.
A career that crossed every screen
Before Until Dawn, Panettiere had already built one of the more recognisable careers in American television. Her breakout came as Claire Bennet on NBC's Heroes, the cheerleader whose ability to heal made her one of the show's most iconic figures. She followed that with a long run on Nashville as country star Juliette Barnes, earning multiple award nominations along the way.
She also appeared in the Scream franchise, including Scream 4 and Scream VI, and got her first major film credit as a child playing Sheryl Yoast in Remember the Titans alongside Denzel Washington.
Her personal life was never far from the public eye. She published her memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, earlier this year, addressing her childhood fame, mental health, motherhood, and the loss of her younger brother Jansen Panettiere, who died in 2023 at age 28. She is survived by her daughter Kaya, whom she shares with former fiancé Wladimir Klitschko.
What her loss means for the games she touched
Panettiere was not a lifelong gaming figure, but she did not need to be. Until Dawn is the kind of game that gets replayed, discussed, and recommended constantly, and every time someone boots it up, her performance is the first thing that hits. That does not go away.
The Until Dawn remake introduced the game to players who were barely teenagers when the original launched. Many of them will now look up who voiced Hannah and learn about Panettiere for the first time through this news. That is a strange and specific kind of legacy, but it is a real one.
For anyone who wants to revisit games built around hero characters and branching stories in her memory, the GAMES.GG guides section has plenty of starting points. If you are specifically into hero-based games, the Onchain Heroes earning guide and the TBH: Task Bar Hero best team combinations guide are worth a look while the community processes this loss.
Hayden Panettiere was 36. Rest in peace.
