Lilo & Stitch star Tia Carrere gushes over her trans teen son

Tia Carrere, a voice actor from Disney's original 2002 Lilo & Stitch film, has casually revealed her son is transgender.

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Carrere played Lilo's sister, Nani, in the original animated feature, and returned in the live-action remake to play Mrs. Kekoa, a social worker who checks in on Nani and her little sister. Though Carrere missed the world premiere event of 2025's Lilo & Stitch, her son, Jude, went in her place. The actress subsequently spoke about the event with People, and was asked if her child would follow in her footsteps to become an actor.

"He doesn't love the spotlight," Carrere said, referring to Jude. "He's more introverted, so he definitely won't go into acting or singing like I did. But he's a great artist. I don't know what he'll do! Maybe become a doctor or work with animals. He's working with animals right now."

"He's very matter-of-fact. He knows who he is, and he's very happy," she went on, gushing over how proud she is of Jude. "He's such a sweetheart; he's like the therapist to all the other kids. When his friends go out drinking or partying too hard, he's always the designated driver, that kind of caring friend you can always lean on."

The actor concluded, "I did a good job with that. But I don't want to congratulate myself too much! He's his own person."

Disney's live-action Lilo & Stitch film has had its fair share of critiques, yet still opened as the no. 1 film over Memorial Day Weekend, even beating the Mission: Impossible franchise finale film.

Some fans weren't happy that the film washed away Pleakley's queer-coded story arc from the original film.

"In the live-action movie, we see human Pleakley wear feminine clothes — but the magic of him experiencing gender euphoria while wearing dresses, wigs, and makeup are totally erased from the movie," Out writer Moises Mendes II pointed out in his review of 2025's Lilo & Stitch. "We see him wear a feminine floral blouse as his first outfit and then a black knit long sleeve with a daisy in the middle and black and yellow checkered pants, but that's it for the feminine clothes. For the rest of the movie, he's just a guy."

Director Dean Fleischer Camp implied that his efforts to include the plot points were shot down in a TikTok comment. "All I want to say is that… I tried," he wrote.

The live-action Lilo & Stitch is playing in theaters.