Having childhood milestones on a hit TV show, never escaping "fetch" and becoming the Queen of Hallmark. Lacey Chabert has been performing since childhood, but her change from child star to Christmas staple has been a sight to see.
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00:00Having childhood milestones on a hit TV show, never escaping fetch, and becoming the Queen
00:06of Hallmark, Lacey Chabert has been performing since childhood, but her change from child
00:11star to Christmas staple has been a sight to see.
00:15Lacey Chabert was born and raised in Purvis, Mississippi, and she still feels a connection
00:19to her Southern roots. We're calling to Southern Living that she was raised with a real sense
00:24of family and a love of the holidays. She was also a pageant girl as a kid, learning
00:29early that she liked to perform. Her family eventually moved from Mississippi to Manhattan,
00:34relocating because her older sister was trying to break into entertainment.
00:38But Chabert got involved as well. As she told Tinseltown Mom,
00:42"...I auditioned for a commercial and got the commercial, and one thing led to another."
00:46Lacey Chabert's commercial gig led to something bigger, a role on Broadway as the young Cosette
00:51in Les Miserables. Looking back, Chabert acknowledges that Seven seems young to be a professional.
00:57I know, so young seems totally crazy, but I just loved it. I was just kind of born to
01:03do this, I think."
01:05In addition to this, Chabert landed a role on All My Children. She played Bianca Montgomery,
01:10one of legendary daytime character Erica Kane's children. Even with all that success, however,
01:15Chabert was aware of the fact that her budding stardom could end at any time. As she told
01:20TV Tango,
01:21"...I knew it could all change after I grew up, which was something I really couldn't
01:25avoid."
01:26Despite her childhood worries, Lacey Chabert's career didn't end. In fact, it just kept moving
01:31up. In 1994, she was cast on Party of Five, a Fox show about five siblings who lose their
01:37parents in a car accident. Even at the time, the young Chabert knew that the show was something
01:42special. She told Access Hollywood in 1996 that her life had changed in some ways because
01:47of the show, but she was able to stay true to herself.
01:50It's kind of odd when a stranger knows who you are, but it hasn't at the same time, that,
01:55you know, I'm just a normal person."
01:57Rewatching that interview, Chabert reflected to the outlet that the character helped her
02:01grow up, recalling,
02:03"...I also had a lot of my first firsts. First kiss, first bra, I mean, all the things. All
02:09the things that happened to girls, Claudia went through. And a lot of times, I had yet
02:13to go through it in real life."
02:15In addition to her starring role on Party of Five, the 90s brought a young Lacey Chabert
02:20another opportunity that would cement her as a millennial icon. She was the voice of
02:24Eliza Thornberry, a precocious little girl with the ability to talk to animals on Nickelodeon's
02:29hit series The Wild Thornberries. She was around Eliza's age when she got the gig, but
02:35she kept at it for a number of years, making Eliza an outlet for Chabert to hold onto her
02:40childhood just a little bit longer.
02:42As she said in an interview with the Chicago Tribune when she was 20,
02:46"...it's fun to act like a 12-year-old and I really enjoy the fact that kids enjoy the
02:50show so much. When you do Eliza's voice for kids, their eyes just get as wide as saucers."
02:56Chabert has done a lot of voice acting over the years, including on shows like Family
03:00Guy, Transformers Rescue Bots, and Phineas and Ferb. She told Entertainment Weekly that
03:05she appreciated the freedom in role choice that voiceover work gave her, as well as another
03:09kind of freedom, saying,
03:11"...the upside is you don't have to have hair and makeup. You can go in your sweats if you
03:15want. That's always a plus."
03:17In 2004, Lacey Chabert secured perhaps her most iconic role to date, playing Gretchen
03:22Wieners in Mean Girls, the girl whose hair is full of secrets and whose father famously
03:27invented toaster strudels.
03:29"...that is so fetch. Gretchen, stop trying to make fetch happen. It's not going to happen."
03:38Even though the movie was released decades ago, Chabert still hears references to it
03:42nearly every day. She told Entertainment Weekly that she was once at the pharmacy picking
03:46up medication, saying of the interaction,
03:49"...the pharmacist just looked at me and goes, you don't look like you feel very fetch today."
03:54Chabert herself frequently references the movie on her social media, talking about how
03:58she feels about the movie's legacy so long after it debuted. On Instagram in 2023, she
04:03wrote,
04:04"...I am ever thankful to have been a part of this special movie. The friendships that
04:08were formed because of it still bring so much joy to my life."
04:112010 brought Lacey Chabert a new opportunity that would signal a huge career shift just
04:17several years later. She starred in her first film for Hallmark.
04:21Though Christmas films would come to define the channel's output, Chabert's first movie
04:24for Hallmark was a regular, non-holiday romance called Elevator Girl. Chabert told the Hallmark
04:30channel in a behind-the-scenes interview that she was glad that the movie was something
04:33that she could recommend to her grandmother and her nephews.
04:36"...I think that there's not enough, you know, family-friendly programming on to be able
04:39to just sit in front of the TV and watch something with your family and know it's gonna be clean."
04:44It seems that Chabert was aware that Elevator Girl represented a possible turning point
04:48in her career, now that Hallmark had come calling, telling TV Tango,
04:52"...I'm not sure of the path I'll be going on from here, but my goal is to take more
04:56control of what's ahead for me now that I'm an adult. I really want to be more collaborative
05:00and creative in making my own opportunities."
05:04Though she's prolific onscreen, Lacey Chabert tends to keep her personal life private. In
05:092013, she married longtime boyfriend David Neddar. Chabert didn't talk much about her
05:14late-December wedding at first, only announcing it on Twitter after the fact. Chabert finally
05:19opened up about her wedding about six months later to People. It seems that just about
05:23everything that could go wrong did. As she recalled,
05:26"...the caterer quit two days before, my sister's dresses didn't arrive, and what if my shoes
05:31broke? Crazy stuff like that. It was just nuts, but it was perfect at the same time."
05:36Unlike many stars who have their weddings covered by People, Chabert didn't provide
05:40photos. She tends not to share images of her husband online and also walks red carpet solo,
05:46explaining,
05:47"...he's not in the business, and we like our privacy, and I just think relationships
05:51are hard enough without the opinion of strangers. So we try to keep it as personal and private
05:55as possible."
05:58Though Lacey Chabert tends to keep her family life close to the chest, she announced on
06:02Twitter in early 2016 that she was pregnant. She remained just as willing to share her
06:06motherhood journey throughout her pregnancy, including a maternity photo shoot in her daughter's
06:11new nursery for People. Chabert also blogged for the publication throughout her pregnancy,
06:17and as her due date approached, she wrote,
06:19"...these past nine months have flown by and yet they've also felt like an eternity. In
06:24some moments I feel completely ready and in others, I panic that we have forgotten to
06:27take care of something before her arrival."
06:30That September, Julia Mimi Bella was born. Chabert took to Instagram to celebrate, writing,
06:36"...Julia, you are my heart's deepest dream come true. I love you more than I could ever
06:40say."
06:41Lacey Chabert grew up in front of the camera, but as she's become more involved in the Hallmark
06:45Channel family, she's stepped behind the camera as well. Beginning in 2018, Chabert began
06:51producing each Hallmark movie she starred in. As she told Forbes,
06:55"...having been in this business almost my whole life, it's been a goal that has been
06:59realized to be on the other side of the storytelling. I've learned so much and I've been able to
07:03apply my 30-plus years in this business to these movies."
07:07In an interview with Vulture, Chabert explained that she's interested in producing, and although
07:11she has a story credit on Sweet Carolina, she doesn't know that she will ever actually
07:15write a full script herself, going on to say,
07:18"...directing is something I would love to do at some point in my career. I enjoy shadowing
07:22directors and watching the process. You're involved in every decision that's being made."
07:27Throughout her career, Lacey Chabert has been a supporter of Step Up, a charity that provides
07:32mentorship opportunities for young girls. On the red carpet in 2017, Chabert explained
07:37that her work with the charity felt even more important now that she's a mother.
07:41"...I want to set an example for her of what it means to, you know, believe in yourself."
07:46The following year, at the charity's Inspiration Awards ceremony, Chabert expanded on her thoughts
07:51about the organization by saying,
07:53"...I really, genuinely believe in the work that they do. These girls are so awesome.
07:58And they are our future. Let's equip them to dream big and help them on their journey
08:01to accomplishing those dreams."
08:04When Lacey Chabert was younger, she was always interested in clothes, recalling to InStyle,
08:09"...Growing up, my sisters and I would personalize our clothes. We'd iron on patches and alter
08:14them to the way that we wanted them to be, and we'd sketch out designs for fun."
08:18Though she got into acting rather than fashion design, Chabert always had her eye on someday
08:22launching a clothing line of her own. That dream finally became a reality in 2022, when
08:28Chabert launched a line with the Home Shopping Network, selling everything from pajamas and
08:32tops to pants and polo dresses. She revealed in a behind-the-brand featurette for the network
08:38that she was a fan of buying through HSN, making it the perfect home for her clothing
08:42collection. As for her brand's ethos, she said,
08:45"...I would describe the Lacey Chabert collection as cozy and comfortable. I want women to feel
08:50cute and effortless."
08:52The clothes had a personal connection for Chabert, too. Ever since her daughter was
08:56younger, she would always want to wear whatever her mother was wearing. Chabert designed matching
09:00moments for those occasions, matching sets of loungewear for adults and children.
09:06When Lacey Chabert's fellow Hallmark queen, Candace Cameron Bure, publicly left the network
09:10to join Great American Family instead, she caused controversy by disparaging her former
09:15holiday movie, Home. When the Wall Street Journal asked her if Great American would
09:19ever make a Christmas movie about a same-sex relationship, she replied,
09:23"...I think that Great American Family will keep traditional marriage at the core."
09:27Speaking with Vulture, Chabert was asked about her former colleague's remarks. At first,
09:32she dodged the question, but after being pushed, she elaborated on her feelings on
09:36the subject, saying,
09:37"...I'll never abandon what Hallmark means for me, which is that everything is centered
09:41around the heart. I don't think there are any plans for that to change anytime soon."
09:46The year before Bure's controversial comments, Chabert spoke with Insider about Hallmark's
09:50push for diversity, and her remarks give us a clue about how she might really feel about
09:55Bure's statement. Chabert said she was glad the network was expanding their scope to be
10:00more inclusive, explaining,
10:01"...I think that Hallmark has done a wonderful job of telling stories that everyone can relate
10:06to, and I think they continue to try harder and strive to do that even more."
10:11In 2024, Lacey Chabert surprised Hallmark devotees by appearing in Hot Frosty, a holiday
10:17movie for Netflix. She plays Kathy, a widow who wraps her scarf around a hunky snowman
10:22one night only for him to spring to life. The film's infectiously zany concept immediately
10:27hooked viewers, helped along by a cheeky reference to Chabert's past.
10:31"...What do you mean, who I am? I know who I am."
10:35"...That is so funny. That looks just like a girl I went to high school with."
10:39For the record, Chabert's jump to Netflix is not an exclusive move. The same year as
10:43Hot Frosty, she also appeared in Hallmark's The Christmas Quest, proving she's still the
10:48queen of Hallmark Christmas movies. However, she rejects the all-encompassing title of
10:52Queen of Christmas. As she told ET at the suggestion,
10:56"...I would never tell Mariah Carey to move over. I love Mariah."