Lacey Chabert

Lacey Nicole Chabert (born September 30, 1982) is an American actress. One of her first roles as a child actress was the part of Bianca Montgomery, the daughter of Erica Kane, on All My Children from 1992 to 1993. She gained further prominence for her portrayal of Claudia Salinger in the Fox television drama Party of Five (1994–2000).

In film, she has appeared in Lost in Space (1998), Not Another Teen Movie (2001), and Daddy Day Care (2003); and had leading roles as Gretchen Wieners in Mean Girls (2004), Meg Cummings in Dirty Deeds (2005), Dana Mathis in the horror remake Black Christmas (2006), and Penelope in the animated film All I Want for Christmas Is You (2017). Chabert has also appeared in more than 30 Hallmark Channel films.

Chabert's extensive voice acting roles have included Eliza Thornberry in the Nickelodeon animated series The Wild Thornberrys (1998–2004) and the feature films The Wild Thornberrys Movie and Rugrats Go Wild; Meg Griffin during the first season of the animated sitcom Family Guy in 1999; Mako in the video game Star Wars: The Old Republic, superhero Zatanna Zatara in DC Comics-related media, and Princess Elise in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).

Early life
Lacey Nicole Chabert was born on September 30, 1982 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and raised in nearby Purvis. Her father is Cajun from Louisiana. She has a younger brother, Tony, and an older sister, Chrissy. Their oldest sister, Wendy, died of a heart attack in November 2021. Lacey was "World's Baby Petite" in the "World's Our Little Miss Scholarship Competition" in 1985. She also participated in beauty pageants as a child and was once named Miss Jr. Mississippi.

Acting career
Some of Chabert's earliest roles were in television commercials for Burger King, Triaminic Cough Syrup, Zest and Secret Beauties dolls. In 1992-93, Chabert played the role of young Cosette in Les Misérables on Broadway. She appeared on The Broadway Kids' first album The Broadway Kids Sing Broadway (1994), where she sang her own solos on such songs as "The Girl I Mean to Be" (from The Secret Garden) and "Castle on a Cloud" (from Les Misérables). In 1994, she landed the role of Claudia Salinger on the Fox network teen/family drama series Party of Five. The show centered on the five Salinger siblings, who are orphaned after their parents are killed in a car accident caused by a drunk driver. The show received positive reviews and ran for six seasons, from September 12, 1994 to May 3, 2000. She won The Hollywood Reporter's annual YoungStar Award for Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Drama TV Series in both 1997 and 1998 for Party of Five, and was nominated three other times for her work in 1999 to 2000. The YoungStar awards honor the best film, TV, and music performances made exclusively by 6- to 18-year-olds.

Chabert made her big-screen debut starring as Penny Robinson in Lost in Space (1998). She then had a supporting role as Amanda Becker in the parody film Not Another Teen Movie (2001), and provided the voice of Aleu, the title character's daughter, in Balto 2: Wolf Quest (2002). In addition to her animation voice work as Eliza Thornberry from 1998-2004, Chabert was the voice of Meg Griffin, uncredited, on the first season of Family Guy in 1999, after which Mila Kunis took over the role when Chabert became too busy with schooling and her other work. Chabert co-starred as Gretchen Wieners, the girl who tries to make her slang term "fetch" catch on, in the hit film Mean Girls (2004). She and her co-stars Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams and Amanda Seyfried went on to win the 2005 MTV Movie Award for "Best On-Screen Team". Chabert also played the title role in The Brooke Ellison Story, a 2004 television biopic produced and directed by Christopher Reeve, based on a real-life quadriplegic woman who overcame obstacles to graduate from Harvard University. Chabert then appeared in Hello Sister, Goodbye Life (2006) on ABC Family; had a role in a 2006 remake of the 1974 horror film Black Christmas, and in an episode of Ghost Whisperer opposite former Party of Five co-star Jennifer Love Hewitt. Her voice work in the second half of the decade included the roles of Princess Elise in the video game Sonic the Hedgehog and Gwen Stacy in The Spectacular Spider-Man animated series.

From 2013 to 2014, Chabert had a recurring role on the ABC Family sitcom Baby Daddy as Dr. Amy Shaw. In 2015, she starred in the television film A Christmas Melody alongside Mariah Carey, Brennan Elliott, Kathy Najimy and Fina Strazza. It was viewed by 3.95 million people when it debuted on the Hallmark Channel on December 19, 2015. In 2017, she provided her voice to the animated film All I Want for Christmas Is You, based on the book of the same title, written by Carey and Colleen Madden. The film also atars the voices of Carey, Breanna Yde and Henry Winkler. She began 2018 with another Hallmark Channel original movie as part of its Valentine's Day Countdown.

In 2019, Chabert began starring in the Crossword Mysteries series on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel. After several actors left the Hallmark Channel in 2022 to go to the new Great American Family network, Chabert voiced her allegiance to Hallmark, and signed a new contract allowing her to take on a larger role with the network, including producing some of her own movies. Chabert portrayed marketing executive Josie Wilder in the network's romantic drama Sweet Carolina in 2021, in which Josie returns home and suddenly becomes her niece and nephew's guardian. Chabert wrote the film's story with Jonathan Prince and Michael Reisz.

In November 2023, Chabert starred in a Mean Girls-themed Black Friday commercial for Walmart, along with her original co-stars Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Seyfried, Rajiv Surendra and Daniel Franzese. A second commercial, titled "Gretchen's Wednesday", was entirely centered around Chabert's character Gretchen Wieners and her family life. On November 27, 2023, it was announced that Chabert was working on an unscripted Hallmark project, Celebrations with Lacey Chabert, set to premiere in late 2024. She will also be an executive producer of the series. On May 13, 2024, Variety announced that Chabert has a lead role in the Netflix holiday film Hot Frosty. Chabert stars as a widow who brings a snowman to life two years after losing her husband.

Business ventures
In 2016, she wrote a blog series for People magazine's website, focusing on getting ready for her baby. Chabert wrote about discovering that she was pregnant, learning that she was having a girl, and figuring out smart ways to hide her baby bump on film sets.

In September 2022, Chabert launched her own apparel line with home shopping television network HSN called the "Lacey Chabert Collection". In an interview with InStyle, Chabert said: "I've always dreamed of having a clothing line." The line includes jackets, jogger pants, leggings, socks, "Mommy & Me" dresses, and cardigans and is priced between $15.00 and $80.00.

In the media
Appearing in more than 30 Hallmark Channel films, many of them holiday-themed, Chabert has been referred to as the 'Queen of Hallmark Christmas Movies'. Chabert stated in an E! interview that, "one of the things I love about [working with Hallmark] is you're guaranteed a happy ending [...] I think in the world we're living in today, to be a part of a project that adds a little love and light and levity into the world is something I'm very proud of." In February 2022, Chabert signed an exclusive multi-film deal with Hallmark Channel's parent company, Crown Media Family Networks.

Chabert has been featured on numerous magazine covers, such as Stuff, People, Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide and Maxim. She was on the cover of Maxim at age 31, and said, "I got the call from Maxim and then immediately put down the cupcake and ran to the gym."

Personal life
Chabert married her longtime boyfriend, David Nehdar, on December 22, 2013, in Los Angeles. Chabert gave birth to their daughter in September 2016.

The Broadway Kids albums

 * The Broadway Kids Sing Broadway (1994)

Authored articles

 * Chabert, Lacey (October 26, 2020). "Lacey Chabert: Christmas Is Close to My Heart". Guideposts.