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PEOPLE scarf and green purse —so I can find her. She is — stylishly adorned over dark jeans and a tunic, complemented by large, mirrored sunglasses. I As I pull up a chair, Lacey jokes about our meeting this way feeling like a blind date. We laugh. I skip picking up my favorite drink (mochachino) as the line inside is too long and the drink boasts as many calories as a dessert. I comment that cupcakes are much more satisfying, which instantaneously sparks a conversation about our obsession with Sprinkles Cupcakes. "I love it! Their strawberry cupcakes are the best dessert ever, and I'm a baker!" Lacey gushes. "Do yourself a favor and have strawberry next time. I would only eat the red velvet and black and white, and I just happened to get a strawberry one day and was hooked," she exuberantly shares. (I've recently had the pleasure of trying the strawberry and can attest that Lacey is right. The frosting is perfectly sweetened. It is delicious.) With visions of cupcakes still dancing in our heads, Lacey gets into her recent undertakings. "I just finished an independent film called, Telling of the Shoes, which was a drama we shot in six days. I've never been a part of such an ambitious project before," Lacey explains about the film, whose dramatic plot unfolds at a Manhattan dinner party of six guests. Early last year, Lacey starred in the romantic comedy Slightly Single in L.A. (still awaiting release), while the web series, Off Season, she filmed with Eliza Dushku and Rick Fox will debut this fall via internet. "I play a sports reporter, so I was doing what you're doing," she says referring to my job, "which was really fun. My character is basically a woman in a man's world." Her distinct, confectionary-sweet voice has been used in several animations: The Wild Thornberrys Movie and series, Anastasia, The Lion King II… and as the original voice of Family Guy's Meg Griffin (before Mila Kunis took over). This season Lacey lends her vocals to Jonah Hill's new primetime series with FOX, Allen Gregory. "Jonah Hill is producing and starring in it. It's really, really fun to work on. He's so funny. Will Forte is hilarious, he's in it and a bunch of people from Saturday Night Live —to be in a room like that, when we do the read-throughs, they just start pitching ideas and jokes. Most of the time, they're completely brilliant and if it doesn't work, they just move onto another idea. It's such a fearless way they attack creating these episodes. It's really, really inspiring to be around," she raves. Lacey has another project in the works, but was unable to comment on it –much. "I'm literally not even allowed to say the title —it's a comic book thing," she laughs. "Got myself there," she stops herself. Quiet on that subject, she does share her desire to work a bit behind-the-scenes. "I really want to start being more involved in producing material from the ground up. I've optioned a few scripts and I'm always looking to option novels. I haven't had anything come to fruition, where it's made it to the screen yet, but I'm trying my hand in that as well," she says. Always up for a challenge, Lacey has been pushing herself to surpass boundaries in this industry since she was just 7-years-old. t's a warm, sun-shiny day on Sunset Boulevard, where I find Lacey Chabert patiently sitting at a table (ten minutes ahead of our set meeting time) sipping an iced coffee on the outdoor patio of The Coffee Bean. Prior to my arriving, Lacey sends me a text message to let me know that she's wearing a pink The natural performer and songstress grew up singing in church, school plays, even took lessons, which landed her on Star Search. Even though she lost, the minor setback didn't impede Lacey's drive. Her family moved her to New York, where she continued to sparkle in the limelight as Bianca on the soap opera All My Children and on Broadway's Les Misérables as Cosette for three years. Lacey's passion helped her tackle the toughest of feats, including the "meaty" role of Gavroche, which she understudied, but hadn't finished learning the choreography for before being asked to take the stage as the male character on her 10th birthday. "I just remember that feeling, where I couldn't have articulated this as a kid because I didn't understand it; I knew I was just so excited to perform. I realized this is such an exciting opportunity and I went and did it." With full support from the cast, and her tenacious personality, Lacey shined. "When it came curtain call, I ripped off my hat and my hair came out and they're like, 'It's a girl!'" she remembers. "As a kid you're so fearless. I was a little nervous, but you don't have that self-judgment… I find myself trying to get back, even in my work now as an adult, taking the judgment out of it and doing it for the love of it." Lacey has starred in a number of films, including, Ghosts of "Sometimes I'm a part of things that are really thought-provoking and interesting. And sometimes it's more for the entertainment factor, but I sometimes they just want to escape and be made to laugh. I think that's think that's just as important because people go to the movies and important, especially with everything our country is going through. It's a great way to take people's minds off of more serious subjects." Girlfriends Past, Black Christmas, Not Another Teen Movie… over her twenty years in show business. Her most notable characters are Claudia Salinger on FOX's hit drama Party of Five and Gretchen Wieners from the 2004 cult classic, Mean Girls, which won the 2005 MTV Movie Award "Best On-Screen Team", shared with co-stars: Lindsay Lohan, Rachel McAdams and Amanda Seyfried. Lacey was the first and only choice to play the fictitious heir to the Toaster Strudel fortune. "I didn't really know that till after the fact. On paper the description of that character really didn't fit me at all, like physically what I thought they were looking for. It was kind of one of those things where I thought, I don't really think I have a shot at this, but I think it's so funny. I just want to go in and give it a try. Then I got the job. It just goes to show, you never know." The popular movie continues to garner attention for Lacey. "I probably get stopped almost once a day, someone talking about that movie or being like, 'Oh, you're so fetch,'" she laughs about her character-associated tagline. "Last year I was really sick, had the flu… and I went to the pharmacy. I go up to the counter and the guy is like, 'Aww —you don't look very fetch.' (She laughs.) I was like, 'I don't feel it.' It's really fun to play a character and to be a part of a project that influences so many people and is memorable. Anyone can relate to that high school experience, whether you're in high school, college, whether you're just beyond all that in the real world, it's still a way that women relate to each other," says Lacey. Grateful for a thriving career, Lacey makes it a point to give back however she can. She recently developed the charity Project Giving Tree (projectgivingtree.org) along with Tara Mercurio, whom she met and befriended while working on Daddy Day Care. "We wanted to do charitable things in our area and wanted to take more initiative." The challenge they met was figuring out where to direct their efforts when there are so many foundations that need help. "We were thinking, if there was one place where people could come and donate their time and money, I feel that people would do more than they're doing because they don't know where to go or start." While they were forming PGT, their paths crossed with The Angel 34 Foundation (Angel34.org) founded by Doug Sheriff, who lost his MIAMI LIVING 69