Featured Cast & Crew
Chris Sanders - Director,
Writer, Voice of "Stitch"
Sanders started at Walt Disney, as one of the first
on the Visual Development department in 1987. His first feature
was "The Rescuers Down
Under". Soon after, he left Visual Development to become part of
the story department. He was a key member of the team that developed
the Beast's death and resurrection in "Beauty And The Beast" and
was Production Designer for "The Lion King". He joined
the Animation team based in Florida while he worked as head of story
for "Mulan", which
was produced onsite, rather than at the home base in Burbank, CA.
In addition to being the creator, writer, and
director of the film, Sanders supplies the undeniably unique voice
of "Stitch". Perhaps under guidance that he was the only one who could
effectively "sound" like the little creature developed in his own
head, Sanders provides Stitch's grunts, alien language, and attempts
at English for both the original movie, sequel, and the television
program (although he only served a production position on the original).
DeBlois joined Disney in 1994 as a layout artist on
"Mulan". As the production progressed, he joined the story department
for the film. There he met Chris Sanders and joined him as co-head of
story for the film. After given the greenlight from the Studio, Sanders
approached DeBlois about working on a brainchild of his own, and DeBlois
soon joined him on writing the story, as well as working as co-director
with Sanders on what would eventually become, "Lilo & Stitch".
The first film Spencer produced was "Lilo & Stitch",
but his career at Disney was quite packed. After joining the company
in 1990 as senior business planner, he soon moved up to new positions
as manager of studio planning and later, director of studio planning
and finance.He joined Feature Animation in 1993 as director of planning.
Three years later he was promoted from just Animation's vice president
of planning and finance to Disney's Animation and Theatrical Productions'
Senior vice president of planning and finance. There, he served under Thomas
Schumacher, the Executive vice president of the department, who would later
make Spencer Senior vice president and general manager of the Florida animation
studio. From there he his long dream of becoming a film producer was fulfilled
when asked to oversee the production of "Lilo & Stitch".
Ho'omalu's day job is being a kumu hula (hula teacher) in
the San Francisco Bay Area, so writing songs and chants for "Lilo
& Stitch" is no big deal. "He Mele No Lilo" and "Hawaiian Roller Coaster
Ride" were responsible for bringing a lot of the Hawaiian flavor to the
production. At the time of the film's production, he was teaching his halau,
"Na Mele Hula Ohana", which he closed in February 2002. He soon opened up
"The Academy of Hawaiian Arts".
Chase began acting at the age of eight in small roles on television.
Her first major role on film was in "Donnie Darko" but her career strength
has been in voiceover roles. In addition to being "Lilo", she voiced the
lead, "Chihiro", in "Miyazaki's Spirited Away" (with David Ogden-Stiers),
which took home the Oscar for Best Animated Feature. While she voices
"Lilo" on Disney Channel and ABC in "Lilo & Stitch: The Series", she
can be also heard as "Joyce" on "Disney's Fillmore". Her other big role is
scaring the daylights out of viewers as the mysterious "Sarah" in the spooky
movie, "The Ring". Born in July 1990 in Los Angeles, Chase's new projects
include the independent "Carolina" and the straight-to-video "Big
Paw: Beethoven 5". She is also one of the stars of "Haunted Lighthouse
4-D", a new show featured at Sea World and other Busch Gardens parks.
Tia Carrere- voice
of "Nani Pelekai"
A few television roles is what started Carrere's acting career; most notably
her two-year role as "Jade" on "General Hospital" from 1985-87. Born
in Honolulu in 1967, Carrere is part-Chinese, Spanish, and Filipino, and
her early roles seemed to reflect her Asian background. Her breakthrough
role was as "Cassandra" in the movie, "Wayne's World". Carrere has
continued to work steadily over the years and has also ventured into producing.
She served as Executive Producer of Matthew Modine's "One Last Score" and
the independent, "20 Dates". Carrere is also a singer who released an album
of her own, "Dream", and recorded all the songs sung in "Wayne's World"
as well. It is no surprise that she brought her vocals unto "Lilo &
Stitch", providing the inspiration and vocals for Nani's sweet lullaby of
"Aloha 'Oe" in the film.
Born in 1942 in Peoria, Ogden-Stiers is highly trained thespian and lover
of the arts. He began studying and working as an actor in Northern California
in the Actor's Workshop and later moved to New York and acted in John Houseman's
Acting Company while studying at Julliard. His big role came in
1977 when he played the pompous "Major Winchester" in TV's "M*A*S*H". He
enjoyed many more film and television roles, including a recurring role
in "Perry Mason", but began his voice career and long association
with Disney with the role of "Cogsworth" in "Beauty & The Beast". He
has since done all the "Beauty" sequels and more voices in "Pocahontas",
"The Hunchback of Notre Dame", "Teacher's Pet" (the TV show and film),
"Atlantis: The Lost Empire", "Miyazaki's Spirited Away" (with Daveigh Chase),
and "Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman". He has appeared in both the
"Stitch" sequel and TV show as "Jumba". Ogden-Stiers also enjoys classical
music, and has conducted orchestras on his own.
McDonald was born in Montreal in 1961, but he also grew up in Ontario.
He studied drama at Humber College, but learned he was better at straight
comedy. He joined the famed Second City in Toronto and met Dave Foley,
who became a close friend, and helped create the comedy team, "The Kids
in the Hall", with fellow Canadian comedians Bruce McColluch, Mark McKinney,
and Scott Thompson. The group turned their antics into a hit TV show
in 1989 in Canada and the U.S., and it produced TV specials and more movies
in the years that followed the end of the show. He's done a number of guest
roles on TV and began voice work on the animated TV adaptation of the movie,
"Clerks" and the cartoon, "Invader Zim". McDonald continued
to voice "Pleakley" in the sequel and TV show of "Lilo & Stitch".
Jason Scott Lee-
voice of "David Kawena" (original film version only)
Lee was born in Los Angeles, but grew up in Hawai'i from a young age. He
later attended Fullerton College and got serious about pursuing acting. One
of his first roles was one of the "What's Happenin'?" boys in the
film, "Born in East L.A.", and a member of Griff's gang in "Back To
The Future II". His most notable role came in 1993 while playing Bruce
Lee in "Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story". He went on to play more lead roles,
as Noro in "Rapa Nui", Aladdin in "Arabian Nights", and Mowgli
in Disney's live-action version of "The Jungle Book". Recommended to
producers by fellow Hawaii native Tia Carrere for the role of "David", Lee
accepted to role knowing that authenticity would be appreciated. Lee
voiced "David" strictly for the original movie, but not for the sequel or
TV series.
Ving Rhames- voice
of "Agent Cobra Bubbles"
Rhames began acting on Broadway in 1984 after studying at both Julliard
and State University of New York at Purchase (SUNY Purchase). Born in Harlem,
his love of acting grew after attending the New York High School of Performing
Arts. After a role on TV's "Another World", Rhames enjoyed small roles
in movies, until his big break in Quentin Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction". He
went on to enjoy action roles in "Mission: Impossible", "Con Air", and "Out
of Sight". But his name hit headlines when he presented his Golden Globe
for his role of Don King in "Don King: Only in America" to Jack Lemmon
for "12 Angry Men". Rhames previously did voice work in "Final Fantasy:
The Spirits Within", but he continues to work on a packed schedule. Besides
continuing work as Agent Bubbles in the "Lilo & Stitch" franchise,
he remains active in the "Mission: Impossible" film series as Luther
Stickell ("Mission: Impossible 3"is slated to be released in 2005).
Zoe Caldwell- voice
of "Grand Councilwoman"
Caldwell was born in Hawthorn, Victoria, Australia in 1934. She later
emigrated to England and made her professional debut in Stratford-upon-Avon
and soon joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. She moved to Canada in 1961
and gained renowned as a celebrated and award-winning stage actress. She's
won 4 Tony Awards (out of 4 nominations) including in 1968 for "The Prime
of Miss Jean Brodie" and in 1996 for "Master Class". Caldwell has made very
few film appearances including Woody Allen's "The Purple Rose of Cairo".
She voices the Grand Councilwoman in both "Lilo & Stitch" and "Stitch!
The Sequel", as well as making guest appearances on the TV series.
Richardson is mostly well known for his extensive voiceover career, but
is also a actor in his own right. He has had small roles on TV ("Dream On",
"The Parent 'Hood", "ER"), as well as film ("Stuart Saves His Family",
"BASEketball"). His voice work, though, carries the bulk of his resume.
This Mount Vernon, NY native is has done voices for (long inhale) "Hey Arnold!",
"Superman", "The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest", "The Incredible Hulk",
"Batman Beyond", "Family Guy", "The Wild Thornberrys", "Recess", "Buzz Lightyear
of Star Command", "The Legend Of Tarzan", "Lloyd in Space", "Justice League",
"ChalkZone", "SpongeBob Squarepants", "What's New Scooby Doo?", "Teen Titans",
"Duck Dodgers", "Voltron: The Third Dimension", "Spawn", "The Powerpuff
Girls", "The PJ's", "Queer Duck", "Static Shock", "House of Mouse", "Samurai
Jack", "The Proud Family", "Ozzy and Drix" (and that's just TV). He's
done voicework in films, "All Dogs Go To Heaven 2", "The Secret of NIMH
2", "Alvin and the Chipmunks Meet Frankenstein", "Scooby Doo and the Alien
Invaders", "Rugrats in Paris", "Recess: School's Out", "The Powerpuff
Girls", "The Wild Thornberrys Movie", "Scooby Doo and the Legend of the Vampire".
He's also done voice work in live-action projects like TV's "Greg The Bunny",
and in Disney's "The Country Bears" and "George of the Jungle 2" films. A bulk of his work is in video game voicework, including Disney's "Kingdom
Hearts", "Indiana Jones", "Star Wars" series, and "Enter The Matrix". He
also provides many voices of the animated characters in "The Animatrix",
as well as recently doing a live-action role in "The Matrix Revolutions".
Currently, he stars on the WB's sitcom, "Like Family", but continues
to do voicework in the meantime. Richardson's "evil" Captain Gantu is not
only present in the film version, but he plays a pivotal role in the sequel
and TV series.
Dee Bradley Baker-
voice of "David Kawena" (sequel and TV series only)
Baker is a well-renowed voice actor and a few of his credits include:
"The Wild Thornberrys", "Johnny Bravo","Duck Dodgers", "Family Guy", "SpongeBob
Squarepants", "Spiderman", "Codename: Kids Next Door", "The Fairly OddParents",
and "Stan Lee's Stripperella". Baker also does a number of video game voices
as well non-voice work on game shows like Nickelodeon's "What Would You Do?"
as well as appearing the host of the syndicated "Shop 'Til You Drop". Baker
stepped in (Jason Scott Lee was the original film's David) for the sequel
and TV series as the laid-back surfer friend to the Pelekai 'Ohana.
Jeff Bennett- voice
of "Dr. Jacques von Hamsterviel"
Like Richardson and Baker, Bennett has an extensive list of voiceover
credits. His most well-known character to date is the Cartoon Network's Johnny
Bravo, but other career highlights include TV's "Animaniacs", "Bonkers",
"Mighty Ducks", "Pepper Ann", "The Weekenders", "The Powerpuff Girls", "House
of Mouse", "101 Dalmatians: The Series", and "Samurai Jack". Film
credits include "Aladdin and the King of Thieves", "Beauty and the Beast:
The Enchanted Christmas", "Joseph: King of Dreams", Balto II: Wolf Quest",
"Mickey's House of Villains", "Lady and the Tramp II: Scamp's Adventure",
"101 Dalmatians II: Patch's London Adventure", and "The Land Before Time"
series (2-10). Notably, Bennett has taken on the voicing of Yosemite
Sam and Foghorn Leghorn, who both appear most recently in the
live-action/animated film, "Looney Tunes: Back in Action". Dr. von
Hamsterviel has only shown up in the "Lilo & Stitch" sequel and TV
show, as the evil genius out to steal all of Stitch's 625 "cousins".
Mook, not an actor by trade, is the perfect fit for the role of Lilo's
Hula teacher (kumu means teacher in Hawaiian). He currently is kumu hula
for both Hula Halau 'O Kamuela in Waimanalo and it's mainland
counterpart, Kamuela Elua, in Burbank, CA. Although, he does not provide the vocals for the Hawaiian chants featured in the film (another kumu, Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu is the talent behind that), Mook is the voice of reason in Lilo's class as she tries to get along with
her fellow "friends" in class. Mook appears in the original film and sequel,
as well as making guest appearances on the TV series.
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