Daveigh Chase, the actress who gave voice to one of Disney’s most beloved animated characters, has died. Chase, who voiced Lilo Pelekai in Disney’s 2002 animated film Lilo & Stitch, passed away on Tuesday, June 17, 2026. She was 35 years old. Her boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, confirmed the news to TMZ, saying she died from meningitis and a blood infection that caused septic complications and ultimately led to her body shutting down. She had been hospitalized in Los Angeles earlier this month due to malnutrition.
The news sent shockwaves through the Disney fan community, where Chase’s voice performance as Lilo has been cherished for more than two decades. Her uncle, Pete Schwallier, posted about her death on Instagram. “Some of you may know her as Lilo Pelekai, Samara Morgan, Rhonda Volmer or simply, Chihiro,” he wrote. “Daveigh, my beautiful, ultra talented, and only niece, passed away last night. May the Heavenly Father take her in his arms and shower her with love and peace for eternity.”
The Voice Behind Lilo
Lilo & Stitch arrived in theaters on June 21, 2002, and became an instant classic. The film told the story of Lilo, a spirited, fiercely independent young Hawaiian girl navigating grief over the loss of her parents while forming an unlikely bond with a genetic experiment she mistook for a dog. The character demanded an enormous emotional range from a child performer, and Chase delivered one of the most authentic and heartfelt voice performances in Disney animation history.
The film was a genuine cultural phenomenon, grossing over $273 million worldwide and earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature. It spawned a franchise that included the direct-to-video sequels Stitch! The Movie (2003) and Leroy & Stitch (2006), as well as the Disney Channel animated series Lilo & Stitch: The Series, all of which featured Chase reprising her role. Her voice became so synonymous with the character that for an entire generation of fans, there is simply no other Lilo.
For her performance, Chase won an Annie Award for Outstanding Voice Acting in an Animated Feature Production, a remarkable achievement for a performer who was still a child at the time of filming. She also received nominations at the Phoenix Film Critics Society Awards for the role.
A Year Of Extraordinary Work
What makes Chase’s career so remarkable is what she accomplished in 2002 alone. In the same year she voiced Lilo, she also voiced Chihiro Ogino in the English-language dub of Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece Spirited Away, one of the most acclaimed animated films ever made. That film went on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature, giving Chase a connection to two of the most celebrated animated films of the decade in a single year.
She had also appeared in the cult film Donnie Darko in 2001, playing Samantha Darko, the younger sister of the film’s protagonist. And in the same year as Lilo & Stitch and Spirited Away, she played Samara Morgan in The Ring, the iconic horror film whose central villain she brought to life with a performance that has haunted audiences ever since. For that role she won an MTV Movie Award for Best Villain. Few performers of any age have delivered a year like Chase’s 2002.
Her Career Beyond Lilo
Beyond her animated work, Chase built a significant television career. She had a recurring role across 32 episodes of HBO’s critically acclaimed drama Big Love, playing Rhonda Volmer, a young woman in a fundamentalist polygamist community. The role showed a dramatic range far removed from the animated characters she was best known for, and her work on the series earned her continued respect in the industry. She also appeared in ER, Mercy, Sabrina the Teenage Witch, and Beethoven’s 5th.
Her last acting credit was in 2016 for the video game Let It Die. In the years that followed, Chase faced significant personal struggles, including legal issues and health challenges. Her boyfriend had launched a GoFundMe for her before her death, writing: “Daveigh Chase, my girlfriend, has always been a light in my life. Many people know her as a talented childhood actor from Lilo & Stitch, Spirited Away, and Donnie Darko.” He had written in his post that she did not have much time left, sharing that “all she ever wanted was a place where we could live together, feel safe, and be happy.”
What Her Performance Meant
Lilo & Stitch holds a special place in Disney’s animated history. It was one of the few Disney films of its era set in a contemporary real-world location, grounded in Hawaiian culture in a way that felt genuine rather than decorative. At its heart, it was a story about family, grief, belonging, and the idea that ohana means nobody gets left behind. Much of the emotional weight of that message rested on Chase’s voice performance. She made Lilo real in a way that has kept the character beloved for over two decades.
The timing of her death is particularly bittersweet. The live-action Lilo & Stitch film, starring Maia Kealoha as Lilo and directed by Dean Fleischer Camp, was released in 2025 to enormous box office success, introducing a new generation to the franchise. And just this week it was announced that Lilo & Stitch 2 is in development, with original co-creator Chris Sanders returning to direct, as we reported. Chase will not be a part of that future, but the performance she gave at nine years old will remain the defining voice of Lilo for as long as the original film is loved.
Daveigh Chase is survived by her boyfriend Roy Hernandez and her family. She was 35 years old.
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