Very few childhood actors make it out of Hollywood unscathed. In fact, it’s surprising when anyone survives all those pressures as a child. But Lacey Chabert didn’t just survive her early days as a star on Party of Five, she made it through and went on to become one of Hallmark’s biggest stars. 31 years after she first showed up as young Claudia Salinger, the actress is still working and making a name for herself. Which is pretty rare.
Chabert was just 11 years old when she first showed up for the Party of Five premiere in 1994. At that young age, she was portraying a character that was deeply affected by grief and loss, finding strength in her small family. As fans would know, the show ran until 2000 (6 years) before it ended, which in TV time is quite a long stretch. And because the cast and crew grew so close, they all had a hard time packing up and moving on after Party of Five finished. At a panel at ’90s Con, Chabert recalled that everyone broke down after the final take on the last day. “We just all burst into tears and we hugged, and we cried,” she said. They stayed on set for a long time. Nobody rushed the goodbye.
But once you’re that close to anyone, the bond never really dies. And, in 2023, when Chabert reunited with Scott Wolf for the Hallmark holiday movie A Merry Scottish Christmas, the two connected again… immediately. She called it “wild” to be back on set together after nearly 30 years, saying it felt like no time had passed. Their daughters played together while they filmed. Sure, life had moved on, but the connection stayed after all those years.
But before Party of Five made Lacey Chabert a star, she was already a hardworking young woman. Growing up in Purvis, Mississippi, she did child pageants in the 1980s, won the title of World’s Baby Petite in 1985, and then sang her way onto Star Search at 8. Her family later moved to New York, where she landed commercials, Broadway’s Les Misérables at nine, and a demanding stint on All My Children by age 10. It seemed like she was destined for fame at a very young age.
And it was that work ethic that carried Chabert well beyond the finale of Party of Five. Films like Lost in Space led to early-2000s roles that let her poke fun at teen-movie tropes before cementing pop culture immortality as Gretchen Wieners in Mean Girls. She also voiced Eliza Thornberry on The Wild Thornberrys and briefly played Meg Griffin on Family Guy.
Then Chabert found Hallmark, and suddenly her fame skyrocketed again. Starting with Elevator Girl in 2010, Chabert slowly became the network’s biggest lead. In fact, by 2024, she’d appeared in nearly 40 Hallmark movies, signed a multi-picture deal with Crown Media, and taken on producing duties. In other words, Hallmark banked a lot of money on pushing her as the face of the network.
Meanwhile, she’s also had a busy private life. She married David Nehdar in 2013, welcomed daughter Julia Mimi Bella in 2016, launched an HSN clothing line in 2022, and even expanded into unscripted TV with Celebrations with Lacey Chabert.
In 2024, Netflix took notice, too. She was cast in the streaming platform’s biggest Christmas hit of 2024, Hot Frosty.
Chabert is now 42. She’s not the 11-year-old girl we first met in Party of Five. She’s evolved into a strong, hardworking and beautiful woman. There’s no scandal. No reinvention gimmicks here. Just a career built on one smart choice at a time.
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