Daveigh Chase, the actress and voice actress best known for voicing Lilo in Disney’s 'Lilo & Stitch' and playing Samara Morgan in 'The Ring,' has died at 35. She died on June 16, 2026, after a career that made her one of the most recognizable child performers of the early 2000s.

Daveigh Elizabeth Chase-Schwallier was born on July 24, 1990, in Las Vegas, Nevada, and was raised in Albany, Oregon. She began singing and dancing at age 3 at community events and local shows in her hometown, then landed her first commercial, for Campbell’s Soup, at 7 after a visit to Los Angeles. At 8, she auditioned for the voice of Lilo, the role that would make her widely known.

That breakthrough came in 2002 with Disney’s 'Lilo & Stitch,' where she voiced Lilo Pelekai. She later reprised the role in 'Lilo & Stitch: The Series,' which ran from 2003 to 2006. In the same period, she also voiced Chihiro in the English-language version of Studio Ghibli’s 'Spirited Away,' adding another major animated credit to a career that was already unusual for its range. As Chase said of voice work, “In voice acting, you can’t rely on your eyes or your body movements to show what you are feeling. You have to put all of that in your voice.”

The sharpest counterpoint to Lilo came in 'The Ring,' released in 2002, when Chase played Samara Morgan, one of her signature live-action roles. She said of the part, “I just kind of took my own voice and put this freaky twist on it,” a line that captured both the craft and the self-awareness behind a performance that helped define the film’s menace. For that role, she was presented with the MTV Movie Award for Best Villain at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards. In later reflection, she said, “The ending actually totally freaked me out.”

Her career did not end with those early-2000s touchstones. She played Rhonda Volmer on HBO’s 'Big Love,' and her filmography also included 'Donnie Darko' and 'S. Darko,' roles that showed she continued to work across television and film beyond the child-star years. Even so, her most enduring fame remained tied to the contrast that made her stand out so early: the same performer who gave warmth and innocence to Lilo also gave horror a face and a voice in Samara.

In a 2009 Interview Magazine profile, Chase said, “I just want to make something that I love and people will respect,” and, “I want to do things that will change someone’s life, not something they’ll forget about tomorrow.” That ambition fits the career she built, one that moved from local stages in Oregon to some of the most memorable screen work of her generation. Daveigh Chase will be remembered as a gifted child performer whose voice and face helped define two very different corners of early-2000s entertainment, and whose work stayed with audiences long after the credits rolled.