Daveigh Chase 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.
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. 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!”
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.
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.