Her big screen debut came with a part as a partygoer in 1998's high school graduation comedy "Can't Hardly Wait", Originally cast as 'Yearbook Girl' (portrayed by Melissa Joan Hart), Stauber instead took the smaller role of 'Gossipy Girl' due to other filming commitments. The actress next starred as the teenaged daughter of a paleontologist (Peter Horton) who is thrust back in time to meet dinosaurs face to face in the visually outstanding IMAX adventure film "T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous". In 1999, Stauber reach a larger audience with a supporting role in Kevin Williamson's "Teaching Mrs. Tingle", a black comedy not unlike a high school-set "9 to 5", pitting three fed up students against a tyrannical teacher. Stauber played Marybeth Carter, teacher's pet and Katie Holmes' chief rival for the valedictory crown. Later that year the actress co-starred in David O Russell's "Three Kings", as the woman back home awaiting the return of Mark Wahlberg's Desert Storm soldier. She would next be seen in Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous" (2000), a look at the 70s rock scene from the perspective of a fifteen year old boy who lands an assignment with Rolling Stone.