Every Disney Hero Has a Voice ~ Lilo Pelekai

Every Disney Hero Has a Voice

Lilo & Stitch ~ Lilo Pelekai

Daveigh Chase

July 24^th, 1990

Daveigh Elizabeth Chase (born Daveigh Elizabeth Schwallier; July 24, 1990) is an American actress, singer, and voice over artist best known for playing Rhonda Volmer in the HBO series Big Love, Samara Morgan in The Ring and Lilo Pelekai in Lilo & Stitch.

Early life

Chase was born Daveigh Elizabeth Chase-Schwallier in Las Vegas, Nevada, but her name was changed to Daveigh Elizabeth Chase after her parents, Cathy Chase and John Schwallier, divorced. Chase lived with her mother and was raised in Albany, Oregon, before moving to Los Angeles, California to pursue her career. She now has a younger brother, Cade. She wanted to perform from a very early age and began singing and dancing in her hometown and other local areas at community events and shows. One of the factors which inspired her was watching videos of Barney & Friends when she was 4 years old. "I wanted to be like them, the kids on the video," she later said. Her mother then entered her in a Little Miss America Pageant where Chase won the national vocal competition. Following her success, Chase was then signed by a talent agent who specialised in commercials and at the age of 7, she appeared in a Campbell's Soup advertisement. In 1998, she landed a starring role in a musical theatre production called "Utah!"

Acting career

Chase's big break came in 2002 when she won the lead role as the voice of a Hawaiian girl, Lilo Pelekai, in the Disney animated feature, Lilo & Stitch. The film relates how Lilo befriends a strange and destructive blue alien thinly disguised as a dog, whom she calls "Stitch", and how she tries to teach him how to behave using Elvis Presley music as exemplars. For her performance, Chase would go on to win an Annie Award in 2003 and star in the follow-up TV series, Lilo & Stitch: The Series. Chase also voiced the role of the lead character, Chihiro Ogino, a 10 year old Japanese girl, in the American dub of the animated Japanese feature, Spirited Away.

In 2002, Chase starred in the role of Samara Morgan in the feature film, The Ring. Chase was awarded the 2003 Best Villain award at the MTV Movie Awards for her performance, beating out Mike Myers, Colin Farrell, Willem Dafoe and Daniel Day-Lewis. In the sequel to The Ring, The Ring Two (2005), Chase was credited for her role as Samara Morgan because of the use of archive footage from the first Ring, but Kelly Stables performed all of the new footage.

Chase's main other major film and TV credits between 2000 and 2005 were the cult film Donnie Darko (2001) as Donnie's younger sister, Samantha, and Oliver Beene (2003–2004), as Oliver's quirky girlfriend Joyce. Other credits include The Rats (2002), Carolina (2003), R.L. Stine's Haunted Lighthouse (2003) in which she played 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 2006, Chase was given the role of Rhonda Volmer in the HBO drama series Big Love which centers on a polygamist family and its patriarch, Bill Henrickson, played by Bill Paxton. The show focuses upon Henrickson's relationship with his three wives. Chase's character is the child bride of a prophet, Roman Grant, played by Harry Dean Stanton.

Leroy & Stitch, a follow-up to Lilo & Stitch, was released in 2006. Chase then appeared in the second season of Big Love, which aired in 2007. She also plays Betsy in the new PBS Kids show called Betsy's Kindergarten Adventures the same year. She reprised her role as Donnie Darko's younger sister, Samantha, in the film S. Darko. The story picks up seven years after the first film when Samantha Darko and her best friend Corey are now 18 and on a road trip to Los Angeles when they are plagued by bizarre visions.

In 2010, Daveigh starred as Jenna in the psychological thriller Prettyface. In addition, Daveigh has been cast as Audrey in the remake of the movie Jack's Back which will start filming in August.

Singing career

In 1999, Chase joined a small band as lead singer and took the stage as the opening act for Reba McEntire. She was picked by Steven Spielberg to sing "God Bless America" in A.I., although the scene was edited out of the final version of the film. She performed "Holly Jolly Christmas" for the "Schools Out Christmas" album, and sang "Tossin & Turnin" in the Oliver Beene episode "Oliver & Others." She has also sung several times on Big Love, such as in the episode "The Happiest Girl," in which she performs the Donna Fargo tune "The Happiest Girl In the Whole USA."

Filmography

Film
Year	Title	Role	Notes
2000	Robbers	Dentist's Daughter
2000	Her Married Lover	Granddaughter
2001	Donnie Darko	Samantha Darko
2001	A.I. Artificial Intelligence	Child Singer	Scenes deleted
2001	Spirited Away	Chihiro	Voice, English version
2002	Lilo & Stitch	Lilo Pelekai (voice)
2002	Ring, TheThe Ring	Samara Morgan
2003	Haunted Lighthouse	Annabel	Short film
2003	Carolina	Young Georgia
2003	Silence	Rachel Pressman
2003	Stitch! The Movie	Lilo (voice)	Video
2003	Beethoven's 5th	Sara Newton	Video
2009	S. Darko	Samantha Darko
2010	In Between Days	Kent	Short film
2012	Yellow	Young Mary	Post-production
2012	Little Red Wagon	Kelley Bonner	Post-production

Television
Year	Title	Role	Notes
1998	Sabrina, the Teenage Witch	Little Girl	Episode: "Christmas Amnesia"
1999	Michael Landon, the Father I Knew	Shawna Landon, age 8	TV movie
2000	From Where I Sit	Anna	TV movie
2000	Edgar MaCobb Presents	Sally	TV movie
2000	Charmed	Young Christina Larson	Episode: "Pardon My Past"
2000	Practice, TheThe Practice	Jennifer Wakefield	Episode: "Appeal and Denial"
2000	ER	Taylor Walker	Episode: "The Greatest of Gifts"
2001	Say Uncle	Lucy Janik	TV movie
2001	Yes, Dear	Brooke	Episode: "The Big Snip"
2001	Lot, TheThe Lot	Peggy Franklin	Episode: "Kids"
2001	That's Life	Mary-Ellen	Episode: "Boo!"
2001	Touched by an Angel	Heather Albright	Episode: "Heaven's Portal"
2001	Inside Schwartz	Randi Johnson	Episode: "Comic Relief Pitcher"
2002	Family Law	Jamie Garibaldi	Episode: "Blood and Water"
2002	Rats, TheThe Rats	Amy Costello	TV movie
2003	Fillmore!	Joyce Summitt Tracy Mabini (voice)	Episode: "Of Slain Kings on Checkered Fields" Episode: "Links in a Chain of Honor"
2003-2004	Oliver Beene	Joyce	23 episodes
2003-2007	Lilo & Stitch: The Series	Lilo (voice)	68 episodes
2004	CSI: Crime Scene Investigation	Tessa Press	Episode: "Turn of the Screws"
2004	Cold Case	Ariel Shuman	Episode: "The Sleepover"
2006	Leroy & Stitch	Lilo (voice)	TV movie
2006-2011	Big Love	Rhonda Volmer	32 episodes
2007-2010	Betsy's Kindergarten Adventures	Betsy (voice)	TV series
2008	Without a Trace	Diana Reed	Episode: "A Bend in the Road"
2009	Mercy	Ashley Jeffries	Episode: "I'm Not That Kind of Girl"

Awards

Awards
Year	Result	Award	Category	Nominated Work
2002	Nominated	Young Artist Awards	Best Performance in a TV Drama Series: Guest Starring Young Actress	Touched by an Angel
2003	Nominated	Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards	Best Performance by a Youth in a Leading or Supporting Role: Female	The Ring
	Won	MTV Movie Awards	Best Villain
	Won	Annie Awards	Outstanding Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production	Lilo & Stitch
	Nominated	Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards	Best Performance by a Youth in a Leading or Supporting Role: Female
	Won	Young Artist Awards	Best Performance in a Voice-Over Role: Age 10 or Under

Herself

Year	Title
1998	1998 VH1 Fashion Awards
2001	Express Yourself
2002	American Veteran Awards
2003	The Art of 'Spirited Away'
	2003 MTV Movie Awards
	VH1 Big in 03
	It's a Dog's Life: Behind the Scenes and Cast Interviews 'Beethoven's 5th'
2004	2004 MTV Movie Awards
	The Teen Choice Awards 2004
	'Donnie Darko': Production Diary
2005	The Story Room: The Making of 'Lilo & Stitch'
2009	The Making of 'S. Darko'
	Utah Too Much

http://en.wikipedia.org