Daveigh Chase Biography
Daveigh Elizabeth Chase (born Daveigh Elizabeth Schwallier; July 24, 1990) is an Annie Award-winning 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 (pron) 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 lives with her mother Cathy Chase and was raised in Albany, Oregon, before moving to Los Angeles, California to pursue her career (although she still spends much of her time in Albany). 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 an 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
In 2001, Chase won the role as the voice of the lead character, Chihiro Ogino, a 10 year old Japanese girl, in the American dub of the animated Japanese feature,
Spirited Away.
Chase's big break came later 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 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 for it in 2003 and star in the follow up TV series,
Lilo & Stitch: The Series.
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 will star 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
, such as in the episode "The Happiest Girl," in which she performs the Donna Fargo tune "The Happiest Girl In the Whole USA."
Daveigh is currently recording a pop/rock/country album. That project is currently on hold.
