Before They Were Heroes: A Look at the Past Movie and Television Roles of the Stars of Heroes

Since it premiered in September of last year, Heroes has fast become one of the most watched television shows of recent past. The show follows people with the gift of extraordinary powers and abilities such as time travel, invincibility, mind reading, shape shifting and precognitive abilities just to name a few. They soon discover that their roles in life may be bigger than they could have ever perceived, and that their powers are for a bigger purpose; saving the world.

So the other day I got to thinking, what were the cast of Heroes doing before the show? Were they actors looking for their big breaks? I did some research and dug up a bit of the past on each of the shows stars, and what they have done leading up to their success on Heroes.

Jack Coleman (Mr. Bennet) - Mr. Coleman's first major role was way back in 1981 where he portrayed the character of Jake Kositchek on the soap opera Days of Our Lives. The following year he joined the cast of Dynasty where he portrayed Steven Carrington, one of the first gay characters on television. He has also had numerous guest appearances on television shows such as; CSI, Without A Trace, Entourage and Nip/Tuck.

Hayden Panettiere (Claire Bennet) - Hayden started in show business very early, first appearing in a commercial for Playskool when she was just 11 months old. She then went on to soap operas just as her namesake father in Heroes did, playing the role of Lizzie Spaulding on the show Guiding light where she portrayed a young girl in a battle with leukemia. She has also done voice acting work for the video games Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II in which she voiced the role of Kairi.

Leonard Roberts (D.L. Hawkins) - Prior to playing an escaped criminal on Heroes, Leonard was playing recurring role of Forrest Gates on the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He also played the antagonist Sean Taylor in the movie Drumline.