Biography
Date of Birth
2 December 1990, Orange, Texas, USA
Birth Name
Stephanie Kay Panabaker
Height
5' (1.52 m)
Mini Biography
Stephanie Kay Panabaker is an American actress, who was born on May 2, 1990 in Orange Grove, Texas, USA. She is the daughter of Donna (née Mayock) and Harold Panabaker. She has an older sister, Danielle Panabaker, who is also an actress. She started acting at various community theaters in Chicago, Philadelphia and Atlanta. In Naperville, Illinois, Kay attended Crone Middle School for sixth grade, and moved to Los Angeles, California, at the start of seventh grade. In between projects, Kay focuses on her academics. She graduated from high school, as valedictorian, when she was thirteen-years-old and received her Associate's Degree at age fifteen. Kay received two academic scholarships from Glendale Community College, where she attended, studying acting, and where she was on the Dean's list, graduating with honors. She was accepted to the UCLA online program as a junior history major, when she was fifteen, and completed her online BA in History from UCLA, before she turned eighteen. 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 finishes her teaching degree. Panabaker has guest-starred in several television dramas and soap operas. She portrayed "Alice Brand" in 7th Heaven (1996); "Melissa Rue" in ER (1994); "Sara" in Port Charles (1997); "Carrie Bauer" in The Brothers Garcia (2000); "Elisha" in Medium (2005); "Lindsey Willows" in CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000); to name a few. In film, she appeared in Dead Heat (2002) as "Sam LaRoche"; and did some voice work in the Disney/Pixas film, Monsters, Inc. (2001). Panabaker's breakout role came when she starred in The WB's Summerland (2004) as "Nikki Westerly", in the 2004-2005 season. She also appeared as "Georgie" in Nancy Drew (2007), alongside Emma Roberts and Amy Bruckner. She starred in the 2007 movie, Moondance Alexander (2007), along with actors, Don Johnson, Lori Loughlin, James Best, Sasha Cohen and Whitney Sloan. She co-starred on the ABC sci-fi series, No Ordinary Family (2010), along with actors Michael Chiklis, Julie Benz, Jimmy Bennett, Autumn Reeser, Romany Malco and Stephen Collins.
Trivia
Enjoyed working with Lori Loughlin.
If she couldn't be an actress, she'd be a flight attendant, a teacher or a beautician.
Younger sister of Danielle Panabaker.
Favorite book is "Stargirl" by Jerry Spinelli.
Graduated from high school in 2003 at age 13 and began her college career in the spring 2004 semester.
Has a Yorkshire terrier named Peanut.
Was raised in Philadelphia, Chicago and Atlanta.
Lives in Los Angeles, California with her parents and her 2½ years older sister, Danielle Panabaker, who also graduated high school at only fourteen years old.
Loves travelling.
Admitted to UCLA as a Junior in May 2006, at sixteen.
Received her Associates (2-year) Degree in April 2006, at fifteen.
She is a StarPower Ambassador for the Starlight Children's Foundation.
Her first kiss was with Zac Efron, when they both starred on the show, Summerland (2004).
Kay starts her junior year at UCLA on 28 September 2006. She is a History major. [September 2006]
Received her Bachelor of Arts in History from UCLA, at age 17. [April 2008]
Started her Senior year at UCLA, and is on track to graduate in June 2008. [September 2007]
She is of English, Irish, German, Lithuanian, Scottish, Welsh, and more distant Norwegian and Dutch, ancestry.
According to her sister, Danielle Panabaker, Kay is no longer acting and is working with animals. [2015]
After retiring from acting in 2012, Kay Panabaker decided to pursue zoology. She now works as a zookeeper for Disney.
As of 2017, she has retired from acting and is working as a zookeeper at Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park in Florida.
Both Kay and her sister Danielle Panabaker have guest starred in five of the same shows, though never in any of the same episodes. These shows, in no particular order, include: The Division (2001), Medium (2005), Grey's Anatomy (2005), CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (2000), and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (1999). Danielle guest starred on two episodes of Summerland (2004), on which Kay was a series regular.In addition to guest appearing in some of the same shows, they also both appeared in a couple of movies together. In Mom at Sixteen (2005), Kay played a younger version of Danielle's character, and in Read It and Weep (2006), Danielle was Kay's alter-ego.
Quotes
I spend so much time with my parents. My mom and I were joined at the hip for five years. There was not one moment when I wasn't with her.
I just feel like I haven't grown up yet. I live on my own and I do grown-up things, but there is something about me that is very youthful.
I can't age on the inside, and I'm totally okay with that. I have no need to grow up and see myself as mature.
It's rough being a teenager in this day and age.
If you're going to think mean things about me or not be a true friend, then we don't need to be friends.
My whole thing is I want to have a backup plan because maybe I won't get another acting job after 'Fame', maybe I'll want to give up on acting in five years or whatever and I want to have something else that I enjoy just as much as I enjoy acting.
I've actually always wanted to be able to read people's minds. My sister did a movie with super-powers and that's the one I would have wanted, so I really lucked out. The negative is that people are really cruel in their own minds, but you can weed out the bad people from the good people, and then just hang out with the good people.
I went to go see Final Destination (2000), which you have to be 17 and over to see and they're like "Uh, we need to see your I.D." Here's the really funny thing is that I actually had done my hair and makeup that day. If I don't do my hair and makeup, I can understand it but I had actually made an effort to look older.
Some people do need to grow up, but I don't think I'm there yet. I don't think I'm ready to do grown-up things and be a grown-up.
I'm on my own now. I have my own apartment.
I have a really hard time watching my sister act in anything but especially anything where it's a strong emotion. Whether she's crying or she's angry or she's - whatever emotion she's feeling I actually think that she's feeling it and I want to hug her and make it all better.
You can't be crazy and wild when you're on work time. But, I like it, in that sense I think it makes you a better person for having matured at a younger age.
My whole thing is that often times when teenagers are about 18, 19, 20, 21, they get this mentality that they have to be old, they have to appear older, they can no longer be seen as a high schooler, they need to be seen as mid-20s all of a sudden even though they're only, like, 20. I'm the opposite of that.
