From starring in That '70s Show as a teenager to her successful movie career, Mila Kunis is one of Hollywood's most recognizable lead actresses. Yet, arguably the most famous character of her career is Family Guy's Meg Griffin. For over two decades, Kunis voiced the teenage girl turned punching bag of the usually chaotic Griffin family while simultaneously going from TV to movie stardom. However, what many might not know is that Kunis wasn't the original voice of Meg. While Rachael MacFarlane, creator Seth MacFarlane's sister, voiced her in the series pilot pitch, Lacey Chabert who voiced Meg for the first season and some Season 2 episodes before being replaced by Kunis.
By the time Chabert voiced Meg, she was already a child star on the FOX teen show Party of Five. She also had voice acting experience as Eliza Thornberry on The Wild Thornberrys. However, her most famous movie role was as one of the Plastics in Mean Girls, one of the most beloved teen comedies of the 2000s.
Although she couldn't be credited for voicing Meg due to contractual restrictions at the time, Chabert was indeed her voice for Season 1 and for parts of Season 2 due to some episodes being aired out of order. At the time, Family Guy's premiere season wasn't the phenomenon it eventually became. While voicing Meg, Chabert was busy doing Party of Five and attending school, so she dropped out of Family Guy following its first season. Both she and MacFarlane have maintained that her departure occurred on amicable terms.
While Chabert left Family Guy on good terms, it didn't stop the show from making the occasional joke about her being Meg's original voice. In the Season 8 episode "Business Guy," Peter takes over Pewterschmidt Industries where he threatens to replace Lois as his wife. Lois calls his bluff, and he responds with, "Does the name Lacey Chabert mean anything to you?" She's immediately terrified and promises to behave.
Whenever Stewie and/or Brian ever go back in time, they tend to use Chabert's voice for Meg as a meta-joke. In the time travel episode titled "Back to the Pilot," Brian and Stewie go back to the show's first scene with Meg voiced by Chabert from archived recordings. Stewie notices the difference in her voice and that "she sounds like someone who's about to give up a huge opportunity."
Then in the Season 11 episode "Yug Ylimaf," Stewie goes backward in time due to a malfunction in his time machine. When held by Meg, he notices the difference in her voice again and even knows whose voice it is, saying, "Oh my god! We're getting closer to the beginning. You're Lacey Chabert!" This indicates that he's getting nearer to the time of his birth. It's also with this cameo that Chabert finally gets credited as Meg in a Family Guy episode.
Chabert later voices herself on Family Guy in the Season 17 episode "Griffin Winter Games." When Meg competes in a ski race for the Winter Olympics, she inexplicably runs into Chabert also competing in the race. Chabert tells Meg, "This should be my Olympics!" After, they yell at each other with "Shut-up Meg!" before Peter does his own "Shut-up Meg!" It's the only time Chabert and Kunis share a scene together in Family Guy. While Chabert's career could have turned out differently had her scheduling allowed her to take on Family Guy, her acting legacy is already solid thanks to The Wild Thornberrys, Mean Girls and laying claim as the original Meg Griffin.
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