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Biography

Panabaker is an award-winning actress who also recently became the youngest graduate on record from the University of California Los Angeles's History Department!



Kay was born in Texas, but started acting in Community Theater while living in Atlanta.  She made her professional stage debut at age 10 with Chicago's Shakespeare Theater.  Told that all the big opportunities were in Los Angeles, Kay was encouraged by her agent to give the big city a try.  During a one week visit to test the waters, Kay won a leading role in a feature for which they'd been seeing all the LA and NY talent - both boys and girls - between the ages of 7 & 12.  This early success encouraged her family, and though still living near Chicago, Kay began auditioning in LA for TV and film roles.



After guest-starring roles in shows including "ER", "7th Heaven", and "Angel", in 2003 Kay was cast as Nikki Westerly on the drama "Summerland", and that necessitated a move to sunny California.  The show was popular with young teens and ran for 2 seasons, during which Kay was singled out for her performance in the show with a Young Artist Award for "Best Performance by a Leading Young Actress in a TV Series - Comedy or Drama".



Kay has since been seen on TV shows including "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation",  "Ghost Whisperer", "Boston Legal", "2 & 1/2 Men", "Medium", "The Suite Life of Zack & Cody", and "Phil of the Future", as well as two Disney Channel Original Movies, "Life is Ruff"  and "Read It and Weep".  She was seen in 2007 in the feature film "Nancy Drew", and in the Lifetime movie "Custody".  DVD releases for 2008 included the award-winning "Moondance Alexander" and "The Prince & the Pauper". 2009 will see Kay on the big screen, in the MGM remake of the 1980 film "Fame".



Not content to let her education suffer while she pursued these roles, Kay challenged herself by starting college classes while just 13 and working full-time on a television show.  She was valedictorian of her high school and graduated from UCLA just 4 short years later - this despite consistent work on jobs that sometimes took her out of the country for weeks at a time.  Kay was inspired by an elementary school teacher who made learning exciting, and she wants to do the same for others, hoping to teach 4th or 5th grade once she gets her teaching degree.  In fact, she's hoping to return to the Chicago suburb where she went to school so that she can do her student teaching there.



Despite her busy schedule, Kay finds time to pursue other interests including arts and crafts (she's currently into beading) swimming, bowling, and dance.  For her role as "Moondance Alexander", Kay learned to ride and jump horses, and she has continued to train, hoping someday to have her own horse.  She also enjoys traveling, having visited all 50 states as well as Canada, Mexico, South America and parts of Europe.  Favorite trips include the opportunity to be "zookeeper for a day", as well as swimming at different times with sharks, manatees, dolphins, sea lions and with a "wholphin" - the only documented dolphin/whale hybrid known to man.



Her own work in children's films led to Kay's appointment to the National Board of the Coalition for Quality Children's Media. Kay volunteers with children's charities including children's hospitals, Starlight Starbright, Young Storytellers Foundation, and others, and hopes that you will make a difference in someone else's life.



Texas-born Kay Panabaker started acting at various community theatres in Atlanta, Georgia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Chicago, Illinois. She starred in such productions as “The Herbal Bed,” “Once Upon A Time” and “Winnie-the-Pooh.” Following the suggestion of her agent, she then headed to Los Angeles to further pursue her acting career.



Panabaker's first major part arrived in 2001 when she was recruited to do some voice work for the Disney/Pixar hit “Monsters, Inc.,” in which she had the opportunity to work with big names like John Goodman, Billy Crystal, Steve Buscemi and Jennifer Tilly. A series of guest spots on TV series followed, including “ER,” “7th Heaven,” “Angel,” “The Division,” “The Brothers Garcia” and “Medium,” and she made her feature acting debut as Sam LaRoche in “Dead Heat” (2002), an action/comedy starring Kiefer Sutherland, Anthony LaPaglia and Radha Mitchell and directed and written by Mark Malone.



The young actress, however, did not experience a big breakthrough until she won the regular role of Nikki Westerly on the drama series, “Summerland,” which ran for two seasons on The WB from 2004 to 2005. The show was a favorite among young viewers and she was singled out for her performance in the show with a 2005 Young Artist for Best Performance by Leading Young Actress in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama). Panabaker doubled her fame with her recurring performance on the Disney Channel adventure/comedy series “Phil of the Future,” where she portrayed straight laced Debbie Berwick, a friend of Pim Diffy (played by Amy Bruckner), during the 2004-2005 season, and was nominated for a Young Artist in the category of Best Performance by Recurring Young Actress in a Television Series.



In 2005, the talented player starred as Emily Watson on the skateboarding TV-movie “Life Is Ruff,” along side Kyle Massey and Mitchel Musso. After voicing Cheerleader Lacey in an episode of “American Dragon: Jake Long” (2006), she again took on a leading role in a TV film called “Read It and Weep” (2006), adapted from the book “How My Private Personal Journal Became a Bestseller” by Julia DeVillers. In the Disney Channel Original Movie, she was cast as Jamie Bartlett, opposite her older sister, Danielle, who portrayed Is. It was also in 2006 that Panabaker started her three episodic part as Lindsey Willows on the series “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”



Panabaker continued to make guest appearances in such series as “The Winner,” “Two and a Half Men,” “The Suite Life of Zack and Cody,” “Boston Legal” and “Ghost Whisperer” (all 2007). Recently, in October, she revisited the big screen as the star of the family film “Moondance Alexander” (2007), about a young lady with the obsession of turning an ordinary horse into a champion racer. Among her costars in the festival darling are Don Johnson, Sasha Cohen and her former “Summerland” costar, Lori Loughlin. She also supported Emma Roberts in the highly anticipated big film version of “Nancy Drew” (2007), based on the books by Carolyn Keene, portrayed Amanda in the Lifetime Television movie “Custody” (2007) and teamed up with the twin actors Cole and Dylan Sprouse in “Modern Twain Story: The Prince and the Pauper” (2007), a modern day telling of the Mark Twain classic.



The 17-years-old performer is currently in the set of her new TV film, “Happy Campers,” which is scheduled for 2008 release. Starring as Dylan, she will act along side French Stewart, Rebecca McFarland, Ryan Malgarini, Alessandra Toreson and many others.