Daveigh Chase

Daveigh Elizabeth Chase (born July 24, 1990) is an American actress and singer. She is most well known for her voice acting as Lilo in the movie Lilo & Stitch and the series Lilo & Stitch: The Series.

Personal life
She was born Daveigh Elizabeth Chase-Schwallier in Las Vegas, Nevada. She is the daughter of John Schwallier and Cathy Chase. Her name is pronounced "Duh-Vay". She lived in Albany, Oregon, before moving to Los Angeles to become an actress. She still spends much of her time in Albany. Chases's interests include bodyboarding, riding horses, dancing, reading, and writing song lyrics.

Career
Chase wanted to perform from a very early age. She began singing and dancing in her hometown at events and shows. One of the things that made her want to perform was watching videos of Barney & Friends when she was four years old. "I wanted to be like them, the kids on the video," she later said. Her father then entered her in a Little Miss America Pageant where Chase won the national vocal competition. After this, Chase was then signed by an agent who worked mainly in commercials. At the age of 7, she was in a Campbells Soup advertisement. In 1998, she got a starring role as a child member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons) in a musical theater production called "Utah!".

Movie roles
Chase's first movie role came in 1998 when she did the lead role as the voice of a Hawaiian girl, Lilo Pelekai, in the Disney animated movie, Lilo & Stitch. Chase won an Annie Award for this in 2003. She went on to star in the Disney Channel television series based on the movie. In 2001, Chase did the role as the voice of the lead character, Chihiro Ogino, a 10 year old Japanese girl, in the American version of the animated Japanese movie, Spirited Away. The movie won the 2002 Best Animated Feature Oscar.

In 2002, Chase played Samara Morgan in The Ring.  Chase was awarded the 2003 Best Villain award at the MTV Movie Awards. She beat out Mike Myers, Colin Farrell, Willem Dafoe and Daniel Day-Lewis. In the sequel to The Ring, The Ring Two (2005), Chase was listed as playing Samara Morgan again. This was because they used parts of the first movie. Kelly Stables did all of the new scenes for Samara.

Other work
Chase's main other major movie and television credits between 2000-2005 were Donnie Darko (2001) as Donnie's younger sister, Samantha, and Oliver Beene (2003-2004), as Oliver's friend Joyce. Other credits include, The Rats (2002), Carolina (2003), R.L. Stine's Haunted Lighthouse (2003) in which she plays a flying ghost called Annabel, and Beethoven's 5th (2003). She also made guest appearances in Touched By An Angel, Charmed, ER, Family Law, and The Practice.

In 2007, Chase was in the HBO drama series Big Love. The series is about an FLDS polygamist, played by Bill Paxton, and his relationship with his 3 wives. Chase plays Rhonda Volmer, a girl who was going to be a child wife of a prophet, Roman Grant, who is played by Harry Dean Stanton. While making a second season of Big Love, Chase also worked on a new animation series called Betsy's Kindergarten Adventures. Leroy & Stitch (2006), a sequel to Lilo & Stitch, has also been released.

Singing
In 1999, she joined a small band as lead singer. The band has been the opening act for Reba McEntire. She was picked by Steven Spielberg to sing "God Bless America" in A.I.. This part was removed from the final version of the movie. She also sang "Holly Jolly Christmas" for the School's Out! Christmas album and "Tossin & Turnin" in the Oliver Beene episode "Oliver & Others".  She also sings in many scenes in Big Love''.

References

Other websites 
 Official website
 Official journal - "Daveigh's Days"
 
 Daveigh's Music Account at MySpace

1990 births
Living people
American movie actors
American voice actors
American television actors
Actors from Las Vegas, Nevada
Actors from Oregon
Singers from Nevada
Singers from Oregon
Annie Award winners
American child actors
American child singers