Lacey Nicole Chabert (/ʃəˈbɛər/ shə-BAIR; born September 30, 1982)^[1] is an American actress. One of her first roles was playing Bianca Montgomery, the daughter of Erica Kane, on All My Children, from 1992 until 1993. She then gained further prominence as a child actress for her role as Claudia Salinger in the Fox television drama Party of Five (1994–2000).^[2]

Chabert provided the voice of Eliza Thornberry in the Nickelodeon animated series The Wild Thornberrys (1998–2004) along with two feature films, The Wild Thornberrys Movie and Rugrats Go Wild. She was also the voice of Meg Griffin during the first season of the animated sitcom Family Guy^[3] and superhero Zatanna Zatara in several parts of DC Comics-related media. She also provided the voices for Mako in the video game Star Wars: The Old Republic and Princess Elise in Sonic the Hedgehog (2006).

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 Christmas animated film All I Want for Christmas Is You (2017). Chabert has also appeared in over 30 Hallmark Channel films.^[4][5]

Lacey Nicole Chabert was born in Purvis, Mississippi, on September 30, 1982. Her father is Cajun from Louisiana.^[6] She has a younger brother, Tony,^[7] and an older sister, Chrissy.^[8] Their oldest sibling, Wendy, died of a heart attack in November 2021.^{[9][10][11][12]} Lacey was "World's Baby Petite" in the "World's Our Little Miss Scholarship Competition" in 1985.^[13] She also participated in beauty pageants as a child and was once named Miss Jr. Mississippi.^[14]

Early in her career, she appeared in television commercials for Burger King, Triaminic Cough Syrup, Zest and Secret Beauties dolls.^[15] In 1992 and 1993, 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 such as "The Girl I Mean to Be" (The Secret Garden) and "Castle on a Cloud" (Les Misérables).^[15] In 1994, she landed the role of Claudia Salinger on Fox's teen and family drama series Party of Five. The show centered on the five Salinger siblings, who become orphans after their parents are killed in a car accident caused by a drunk driver.^[16] The show received positive reviews and ran for six seasons from September 12, 1994, to May 3, 2000.^[17][18] She won both the 1997 and 1998 The Hollywood Reporter Annual YoungStar Award for Best Performance by a Young Actress in a Drama TV Series for Party of Five and had been nominated three other times for work from 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 in the late 1990s, starring as Penny Robinson in the space thriller Lost in Space (1998). Since then, she has been the voice of Eliza Thornberry in the Nickelodeon animated series The Wild Thornberrys and has voiced Eliza in two films, The Wild Thornberrys Movie (2002) and Rugrats Go Wild (2003). She then had a supporting role in the 2001 parody film Not Another Teen Movie as Amanda Becker. She provided the voice for the title character's daughter Aleu in Balto 2: Wolf Quest (2002), and she provided the voice of Meg Griffin, uncredited, for the first season of the animated sitcom Family Guy (1999), after which Mila Kunis took over the role when Chabert became too busy with schooling and her other work.^[3][19]

Chabert played the title role in The Brooke Ellison Story, a biopic produced and directed by Christopher Reeve, based upon a real-life quadriplegic woman who overcame many obstacles to graduate from Harvard University. She starred as Gretchen Wieners in Mean Girls (2004) and the television film Hello Sister, Goodbye Life (2006) on ABC Family. She appeared in a 2006 remake of Black Christmas. She appeared in an episode of Ghost Whisperer opposite former Party of Five co-star Jennifer Love Hewitt. She does the voice of Princess Elise in the video game Sonic the Hedgehog for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. She also voiced Gwen Stacy in the animated series The Spectacular Spider-Man. Chabert, alongside Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams, and Amanda Seyfried, won the 2005 MTV Movie Award for "Best On-Screen Team" for Mean Girls, where she was chastised by McAdams's character for trying persistently to make her apparent slang coinage "fetch" happen (i.e., become broadly adopted.)

From 2013 to 2014, Chabert had a recurring role on the ABC Family sitcom Baby Daddy as Dr. Amy Shaw.^[20] After working in several television films during this time, she opened the year 2018 with an original Hallmark movie that premiered as part of the Valentine's Day Countdown. In 2015, she starred in the successful Christmas television film A Christmas Melody alongside Mariah Carey, Brennan Elliott, Kathy Najimy and Fina Strazza. It debuted on the Hallmark Channel on December 19, 2015. The film was viewed by 3.95 million people upon its debut.^[21][22] In 2017, she gave her voice to the animated film All I Want for Christmas Is You, based on the book All I Want for Christmas Is You written by Mariah Carey and Colleen Madden. The film stars the voices of Mariah Carey, Breanna Yde and Henry Winkler.^[23]

In 2019, Chabert began starring in the Crossword Mysteries series on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries channel.^[24] After several Hallmark Channel actors left the channel in 2022 to go to the new Great American Family (GAF) network, Chabert voiced her allegiance to Hallmark, and she also signed a new contract allowing her to take on a larger role with the network, which will include producing some of her own movies.^[25] Chabert portrayed a marketing executive Josie Wilder in Hallmark Channel's romantic drama film Sweet Carolina (2021).^{[citation needed]} The film follows Josie, who returns home when she suddenly becomes the guardian of her niece and nephew.^{[citation needed]} Chabert wrote the story with Jonathan Prince and Michael Reisz.^{[citation needed]}

In November 2023, Chabert starred in a Mean Girls-themed Black Friday commercial for Walmart with her original Mean Girls co-stars Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Seyfried, Rajiv Surendra and Daniel Franzese.^[26][27] A second commercial, titled "Gretchen's Wednesday" was entirely centered around Chabert's Mean Girls character Gretchen Wieners and her family life.^[28] On November 27, 2023, it was announced that Chabert is working on Hallmark's first unscripted project called Celebrations with Lacey Chabert, set to premiere in late 2024.^[29] She will also be an executive producer of the series.^[29]

In 2016, she wrote a blog series for People magazine's website, focusing on getting ready for her baby.^[30][31] 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.^[32]

In September 2022, Chabert launched her own apparel line with home shopping television network HSN called the "Lacey Chabert Collection".^[33][34] In an interview with InStyle, Chabert said: "I've always dreamed of having a clothing line."^[35] The line includes jackets, jogger pants, leggings, socks, "Mommy & Me" dresses, and cardigans and is priced between $15.00 and $80.00.^[33][36]

Appearing in over 30 Hallmark Channel films,^[38] Chabert has been referred to as the 'Queen of Hallmark Christmas Movies'.^[39][40][41] 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."^[42] In February 2022, Chabert signed an exclusive multi-film deal with Hallmark Channel's parent Crown Media Family Networks.^[43]

Chabert has been featured in numerous magazine covers, such as Saturday Night, Stuff, People, Entertainment Weekly, TV Guide^[44] and Maxim.^[45][46] She appeared on the cover of Maxim at age 31, saying, "I got the call from Maxim and then immediately put down the cupcake and ran to the gym."^[47]

Chabert married her longtime boyfriend, David Nehdar, on December 22, 2013, in Los Angeles.^[49] Chabert gave birth to their daughter in September 2016.^[50]

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