Kay Panabaker is an award-winning actress who, at the tender age of 17, is not only a veteran of television, stage, and film, but also holds a college degree!
Kay was born in Texas, but started acting in Community Theater while living in Atlanta. 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".
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