The hit animated MTV series Daria premiered in March of 1997, introducing us to the Lawndale suburbs through the eyes of sarcastic high schooler Daria Morgendorffer. Long before she became known for playing April Kepner on Grey’s Anatomy or Emily Lane on Mistletoe Murders, actress Sarah Drew got her start voicing Stacy Rowe on the beloved series. Speaking with Pop Culture Planet’s Kristen Maldonado for the third season of her Hallmark Channel series Mistletoe Murders, Drew reflected on her early days voicing the secretary of the Fashion Club.
“Oh my gosh, I wonder if I could even do that voice again. It was so long ago,” Drew told me. “I started on Daria when I was I think 14 or 15.”
She was initially cast in a different role, while Jessica Zaino voiced Stacy in the first five episodes. “At first, I was just playing a character that Daria went to babysit for. Somebody else was playing Stacy,” she revealed. “And then after I did this one one-off little episode, they were like, ‘We're actually recasting for Stacy and would like you to come play Stacy now.’”
Drew was able to balance school with her recording sessions. “I didn't get to know anybody. I never met anybody because I would just go into the booth and record about four episodes at once. I was in high school at the time or I was in college at the time,” she said. “So I'd have to take the train in from Virginia, do like three or four or five episodes at once, and then go back to college. The same thing in high school. It felt like a cool little thing that I was doing.”
Although she’s a little hazy on if she actually got to watch the episodes. “I don't even think I had MTV at the time, so I'm not sure I even got a chance to watch it,” Drew shared. “I think they sent them VHS copies so that I could see it.”
Her Mistletoe Murders co-star Peter Mooney chimed in as the two laughed: “You're dating yourself. Film reels would arrive on horseback!”
Daria is streaming on Paramount+, while Mistletoe Murders season 3 hits Hallmark Channel on November 5.
