Daveigh Chase, the voice of Lilo in Lilo & Stitch, has died at 35
The actress who voiced Lilo in Disney’s animated classic and played Samara in The Ring died Tuesday, her boyfriend told TMZ, after being hospitalized in Los Angeles earlier this month.
Daveigh Chase, who gave Lilo her voice in Disney’s Lilo & Stitch, has died at the age of 35.
Her boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, confirmed the news to TMZ, saying Chase died Tuesday, June 16 from meningitis and a blood infection that turned septic. She had been admitted to a Los Angeles hospital earlier in the month, reported to be due to malnutrition.
A short career with a long reach
Chase was barely a teenager when she landed the roles that would outlive a lot of longer careers.
In 2002, she voiced Lilo Pelekai in Lilo & Stitch, the lonely Hawaiian girl who adopts a destructive little blue alien and insists he can be good. She stayed with the character for years, returning for Stitch! The Movie, Lilo & Stitch: The Series, and Leroy & Stitch.
That same year, she played Samara Morgan, the girl who crawls out of the television in The Ring, a performance that won her the 2003 MTV Movie Award for Best Villain and gave a generation a reason to fear their own TV sets.
Her voice work reached even further than that. She was Chihiro in the English dub of Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away, played Samantha Darko in Donnie Darko, and spent five years as Rhonda Volmer on HBO’s Big Love.
A character bigger than ever
The timing makes the loss land harder for Disney fans.
Lilo is having a moment again, carried back into theaters by the 2025 live-action remake and a new young actress in the role. A whole new generation of kids just met the character for the first time.
The girl who taught them that ohana means family, and that nobody gets left behind, was first brought to life by a kid from Albany, Oregon, who was only a little older than Lilo herself when she recorded those lines. She was 35.
Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (theme park editor) and the Pirates and Princesses newsroom.
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Hat Tips:
TMZ (June 17, 2026), which broke the news, verified for Roy Hernandez confirming Daveigh Chase’s death on June 16, the cause being meningitis and a blood infection that turned septic, and the earlier hospitalization
Parade and CBR (June 17, 2026), verified for her age, her career roles including Lilo, Samara Morgan, Chihiro in Spirited Away, Donnie Darko, and Big Love, and the 2003 MTV Movie Award