From a planar algebra, we give a functorial construction to produce numerous associated C
∗
^*
-algebras. Our main construction is a Hilbert C
∗
^*
-bimodule with a canonical real subspace which produces Pimsner-Toeplitz, Cuntz-Pimsner, and generalized free semicircular C
∗
^*
-algebras. By compressing this system, we obtain various canonical C
∗
^*
-algebras, including Doplicher-Roberts algebras, Guionnet-Jones-Shlyakhtenko algebras, universal (Toeplitz-) Cuntz-Krieger algebras, and the newly introduced free graph algebras. This is the first article in a series studying canonical C
∗
^*
-algebras associated to a planar algebra.