Daveigh Chase (July 24, 1990 – June 16, 2026) was an American actress. She rose to prominence as a child actress, playing Samantha Darko in Donnie Darko (2001), Chihiro Ogino in Studio Ghibli’s English dub of Spirited Away (2001), and Lilo Pelekai in Walt Disney Animation Studios’ Lilo & Stitch (2002).
In 2003, she won an Annie Award for her role in the latter, and went on to lend the voice of Lilo in the media franchise that followed.
After retiring from acting, Chase faced several highly publicized personal and legal issues that corresponded with an extended absence from the public eye. In June, Chase died at age 35 from a lingering infection.
Biography of Daveigh Chase
Daveigh Elizabeth Chase-Schwallier was born on July 24, 1990 in Las Vegas, Nevada to parents Cathy Chase and John Schwallier. She was raised with a younger half-brother, Cade, and several other half-siblings from her parents’ later marriages. Chase’s parents divorced when she was young, and as a result, she legally used her mother’s maiden name for her professional identity. She then moved with her mother, Cathy, to Albany, Oregon, a city in the Willamette Valley, where she spent her formative years in a close-knit community.
Career
Chase made her television debut in 1998 as a minor guest star in an episode of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. In the 1999 television movie Michael Landon, The Father I Knew, she played the younger Shawna Landon.
Over the next two years, she made a series of cameo appearances on popular television shows such as Charmed, The Practice, ER and Family Law.
Chase had her breakthrough in 2001, as Samantha Darko, the younger sister of the main character (Jake Gyllenhaal), in the independent psychological thriller Donnie Darko.
Although the picture flopped during its initial theatrical run, it immediately gained a devoted cult following and significant critical acclaim.
Chase’s portrayal of a former member of a children’s dance troupe was one of the film’s rare moments of innocence and comic relief.
That same year, she voiced the protagonist Chihiro Ogino, a 10-year-old girl who travels through the spirit world, in Hayao Miyazaki’s acclaimed English-language animated fantasy film Spirited Away. Spirited Away ended up winning the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.
Chase’s international profile rose dramatically in 2002 due to two completely different roles. She was cast as Lilo Pelekai, an unusual and lonely Hawaiian child, in the Walt Disney Animation Studios film Lilo & Stitch.
The short film depicts Lilo’s attempts to tame and raise a destructive extraterrestrial fugitive (voiced by co-director Chris Sanders), using the music of Elvis Presley as a guide to behavior.
The film was a critical and commercial success, grossing over $273 million worldwide. Chase’s voice work was praised for its emotional honesty and witty timing, and she was later awarded Outstanding Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Film at the 30th Annie Awards in 2003.
She reprized her role as Lilo in the direct-to-video film Stitch! The Movie (2003) and the subsequent television series Lilo & Stitch: The Series, which ran on the Disney Channel from 2003 to 2006.
Chase later starred as Samara Morgan in The Ring, a supernatural horror film based on the 1998 Japanese film The Ring. Chase’s role as a mean, drowned child cursing at a videotape required heavy prosthetic makeup and physically demanding stunt work. Her portrayal became deeply embedded in mainstream culture in the early 2000s, making Samara a famous movie villain.
Chase won Best Villain at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards, beating out Mike Myers, Colin Farrell, Willem Dafoe and Daniel Day-Lewis. Chase received credit for the 2005 sequel The Ring Two for using archival footage from the original film, but actress Kelly Stables performed all new screen material and motion capture for Samara.
From 2003 to 2004, Chase starred in the Fox historical sitcom Oliver Beene as Joyce, the titular character’s eccentric lover. Her other notable credits during this period included the direct-to-video film Beethoven’s 5th (2003) and the romantic comedy Carolina (2003), in which she played a younger version of the character Julia Stiles.
Chase spent the 2010s mostly in independent thrillers and horror films. She had a supporting role in the drama Yellow (2012) and starred in the independent thriller Killer Crush (2015). In 2016, she starred in the thriller American Romance and played a supporting role in the psychological horror film Jack Goes Home.
In 2016, she also provided the English voice for Kiwako Seto in the video game Let It Die. Her recent credits include American Romance, Jack Goes Home and Let It Die.
Movies
- Carried away by spirits
- Lilo & Stitch
- Ring
- Point! Movie
- Beethoven’s 5th
- Ring two
- S. Darko
- Yellow
- The little red wagon
- Jack is going home
- American romance
Personal life
Daveigh Chase, the former child star of Lilo & Stitch and The Ring, has led a largely solitary life, with an estranged family and a recent romance with boyfriend Roy Hernandez.
Cause of death
Chase was hospitalized in a Los Angeles hospital in June 2026 for treatment of acute malnutrition after rapidly losing weight.
During her hospitalization, her condition worsened after she was diagnosed with meningitis and multiple severe systemic bloodstream infections, and doctors told her she did not have much time to live.
Chase’s boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, started a GoFundMe crowdfunding campaign to help her manage mounting medical bills and regain stability. In the campaign description, Hernandez noted that Chase has faced tremendous personal challenges in her post-acting life, such as institutional abuse, devastating estrangement from her family, and the constant insecurity of housing in downtown Los Angeles.
Chase died of septic shock and subsequent organ failure caused by her infections June 16, 2026, barely hours after the fundraising site was set up. She was 35 years old.
The next day, June 17, Hernandez announced her death on TMZ, stating that bloodstream infections caused septic complications, forcing her body to shut down.
Daveigh Chase Net Worth
Daveigh Chase, best known for voicing Lilo and playing Samara Morgan, has died aged 35 of complications from meningitis and sepsis, leaving behind an estimated net worth of $100,000.
