Daveigh Chase, voice of Lilo in Disney’s Lilo & Stitch, died from AIDS, officials say
The former child actress, who also played Samara in The Ring, died in June. Officials have now released her cause of death. Here’s a look back at her work, and the difficult final chapter of her life.
Daveigh Chase, the actress who gave voice to Lilo in Disney’s beloved Lilo & Stitch, has died at the age of 35.
Officials have now released her cause of death, weeks after her passing. Here’s a look at the roles that made her memorable, and the sad circumstances of her final years.
Who was Daveigh Chase?
For a lot of people who grew up in the 2000s, her voice and face are deeply familiar.
Born in Las Vegas and raised in Oregon, Chase (whose legal name was Daveigh Schwallier) became a working child actress with guest roles on shows like Charmed, ER, and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. But two roles in particular made her a fixture of early-2000s pop culture.
In 2002, she voiced Lilo Pelekai, the imaginative, lonely little Hawaiian girl at the heart of Disney’s Lilo & Stitch. It became a huge hit and a lasting favorite, and Chase went on to voice the character across more than 60 episodes of the animated series and various games.
That same year, she showed a completely different range as Samara Morgan, the terrifying girl from the well in the horror smash The Ring. The performance was so chilling that it earned her the Best Villain award at the 2003 MTV Movie Awards, beating out heavyweights like Daniel Day-Lewis and Willem Dafoe.
Her other memorable work
Her career had more range than many realize.
Chase also voiced Chihiro in the English-language dub of Hayao Miyazaki’s masterpiece Spirited Away, appeared in the cult classic Donnie Darko, and starred as Rhonda Volmer in the acclaimed HBO series Big Love, opposite Bill Paxton. For an actress who started so young, she left a genuinely varied body of work.
Her cause of death
Here’s what officials have confirmed.
Chase died on June 16, 2026, in Los Angeles. Weeks later, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office released her cause of death as AIDS, with “chronic polysubstance use” listed as a contributing condition. Her manner of death was ruled natural.
When she first passed, early reports, including accounts from her family and her boyfriend, attributed her death to complications from meningitis and a blood infection. The medical examiner’s findings are the official determination.
A difficult final chapter
This is the hard part of her story, and it deserves to be told with care.
Chase’s later years were marked by real struggle. According to her father, John Schwallier, who spoke to the New York Times and NBC News, Chase had battled addiction since she was a teenager and had been homeless in Los Angeles, living near the hospital where she ultimately died. He said the family had been estranged for years.
Her boyfriend, Roy Hernandez, painted a similar picture of a difficult life, writing in a fundraiser before her death that after “a difficult childhood and a painful falling out with her family,” she had “struggled to find safety and happiness” in downtown L.A. He said he had tried to give her love and comfort in her final chapter.
It’s a heartbreaking arc for someone who brought so much joy to audiences as a child performer, and a reminder of how many former child stars face serious struggles out of the public eye.
Final thoughts
Daveigh Chase leaves behind a body of work that meant a lot to a generation, a lovable Disney heroine, one of horror’s most iconic villains, and memorable turns across film and television. She was 35.
Her death, and the difficult circumstances surrounding it, are a sobering reminder that the people behind our favorite characters are human, and that fame at a young age can carry a heavy, often hidden cost.
Our thoughts are with those who knew and loved her. She’ll be remembered for the characters that became part of so many childhoods.
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Article compiled and edited by Derek Gibbs (entertainment editor) and the Clownfish TV newsroom.
Hat Tips:
ABC7 Los Angeles and NBC News (June 2026), verified for the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s cause-of-death ruling (AIDS, with chronic polysubstance use as a contributing condition, natural manner), the June 16 date and age 35, and her father John Schwallier’s account of her homelessness, addiction, and family estrangement
Variety and Fox News (June 2026), verified for her filmography (Lilo in Lilo & Stitch and the series, Samara in The Ring and the 2003 MTV Movie Award, Chihiro in the Spirited Away dub, Donnie Darko, and Big Love opposite Bill Paxton), the earlier meningitis/blood-infection reports, and boyfriend Roy Hernandez’s GoFundMe statement