Jansen Panettiere, the actor who appeared in Disney Channel Originals Movies, The Walking Dead, and Everybody Hates Chris, and the brother of Scream 6 star Hayden Panettiere, has died. TMZ was the first to report Panettiere’s death on Sunday evening. His death was later confirmed by Hayden’s representation to The Hollywood Reporter. The cause of death is unknown. He was 28.
Born September 25, 1994, in Palisades, New York, to former soap opera actor Lesley Vogel and lieutenant firefighter Alan “Skip” Panettiere, he made his acting debut in the year 2000. Just six years old, he found early success on children’s television, appearing on Even Stevens, Blue’s Clues, and the Disney Channel Original Movie Tiger Cruise, opposite his sister and Bill Pullman. He also guest starred on an episode of the sitcom Everybody Hates Chris. Panettiere was nominated for a 2008 Young Artist Award for the Nickelodeon original movie The Last Day Of Summer.
Throughout the 2000s, he became a working voice actor, with credits including Racing Stripes, Robots, and Ice Age: The Meltdown. In 2005, he landed a starring role on the Nickelodeon animated series The X’s, playing Truman X.
Panettiere kept working consistently during the 2010s, acting on Major Crimes and The Walking Dead. He also appeared in The Forger, a 2012 thriller starring Alfred Molina and Lauren Bacall, and MTV’s How High 2. His final roles were in 2021’s Bart Bagalzby And The Garbage Genie and 2022’s Love And Love Not.
Panettiere was also an artist who shared his works on Instagram. An animal and environmental rights advocate, he also worked with the Whaleman Foundation, an oceanic research and conservation organization.