See Wes Craven’s Scream cast, then and now

Neve Campbell (Sidney Prescott)

Like Laurie Strode in Halloween (1978) and Nancy Thompson in A Nightmare on Elm Street (1984), Sidney Prescott is the "final girl" of the Scream franchise. Neve Campbell has walked Sidney through ever-evolving character arcs — from high school and college student to crisis counselor and best-selling author — and the series wouldn't be the same without her. Ghostface's obsession with Sidney's demise, which often traces back to her slayed mother, Maureen Prescott, keeps the slashing alive.

After Scream premiered, the Canadian actress went on to star in The Canterville Ghost (1996) and The Craft (1996) before landing gigs in the cult classics Wild Things (1998) and 54 (1998), taking sporadic breaks from acting in between reprising the Sidney character. Campbell has appeared in five Scream movies — the last being 2022's Scream. Unfortunately, she's not in Scream VI due to salary disputes, though she is slated to return for the upcoming seventh film.

"I mean, these movies meant a lot," Campbell told EW in 2022. "The very first experience was so much fun and meant so much to all of us in many ways."

The actress also joined the House of Cards cast as Leann Harvey for its fourth and fifth seasons. She followed that up with a role in the 2020 Disney+ drama Clouds, based on the real-life story of singer-songwriter Zach Sobiech, and plays prosecutor Maggie McPherson on the Netflix series The Lincoln Lawyer.

Campbell is raising two children with her partner, fellow actor JJ Feild.

Courteney Cox (Gale Weathers)

Courteney Cox entered the Scream world while her hit NBC comedy Friends was in its second season. Since then, she's appeared in all six Scream movies as reporter and author Gale Weathers.

On top of a relentless obsession to cover the latest murder story, Gale's on-and-off romance with Officer Dwight "Dewey" Riley (David Arquette) was a highlight of each film. The actors clearly had chemistry, as Cox and Arquette fell in love in real life. The two were married from 1999 to 2013, and share a daughter, Coco.

As Arquette told PEOPLE of their relationship in 2010: "We met on Scream 1, and on Scream 2 we were kind of on-and-off dating. And by Scream 3 we were married. And now on Scream 4, we have a child. It's sort of an amazing marker throughout our lives."

In the years following Friends and the original Scream, Cox starred on TV shows such as Dirt and Cougar Town (where she also directed episodes and served as an executive producer), and plenty of guest-starring roles in episodes of Scrubs, Shameless, and Modern Family, and in movies like 3000 Miles to Graceland (2001) and The Longest Yard (2005). Cox also directed the Lifetime movie TalhotBlond in 2012, going on to helm the 2014 black comedy Just Before I Go.

Meanwhile, Cox played Pat Phelps on the Starz horror-comedy series Shining Vale. Like Campbell, she is expected to star in the seventh Scream film.

David Arquette (Dwight "Dewey" Riley)

It's hard to imagine anyone other than David Arquette as the gentle, protective Sheriff's Deputy Dewey Riley. Arquette won a Teen Choice award and two Blockbuster Entertainment awards for his portrayal, appearing in the first five Scream films.

Motivated by his role in 2000's Ready to Rumble, Arquette embarked on a 21-year professional wrestling career, facing off against bulky icons like Nick Gage and Randy Orton. He reigned as the WCW World Heavyweight Champion and surfaced in an episode of Championship Wrestling From Hollywood while continuing to steadily work in film and television, including roles in Dream With the Fishes (1997), Ravenous (1999), Bone Tomahawk (2015) with Kurt Russell, the 2019 Creepshow series, and the 2023 Peacock series Mrs. Davis.

Arquette, who remarried in 2015 and went on to have two more children following his split from Courteney Cox, also keeps busy as a producer, receiving a Daytime Emmy nomination for producing Celebrity Name Game.

Liev Schreiber (Cotton Weary)

Though the fame-hungry Cotton Weary was somewhat of a throwaway character in the first Scream, his role grew significantly from there, as fans watched him go from imprisoned scapegoat for Maureen Prescott's murder to successful talk show host. And when Weary's brutal death came in Scream 3, fans were sad to see him — and Liev Schreiber — go.

Luckily, Schreiber's talent reaches far beyond the Scream franchises, so he can be seen — and heard— in many places. One of today's most versatile actors, he's appeared in indie gems (Big Night; The Daytrippers) and blockbuster movies (X-Men Origins: Wolverine; The Sum of All Fears), as well as the 2015 Best Picture winner Spotlight. Schreiber's also starred in Broadway productions of Cymbeline, Hamlet, Macbeth, and Doubt, and even won a Tony award for his performance in the 2005 revival of Glengarry Glen Ross. In addition, he frequently does voiceover work and has narrated a number of documentaries and TV series like HBO's Hard Knocks.

One of Schreiber's most notable roles is playing the title character on Showtime's Ray Donovan for seven seasons (for which he earned multiple Emmy nominations). He also provided the voice for crime lord Kingpin in 2018's Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, and portrayed German businessman Otto Frank in the 2023 Nat Geo miniseries A Small Light.

Schreiber — who shares two sons with former partner Naomi Watts — married Taylor Neisen in 2023, with whom he shares a daughter.

Skeet Ulrich (Billy Loomis)

Skeet Ulrich, as the cold killer Billy Loomis, made for one of the most unpredictable villains on film. When Sam Carpenter's (Melissa Barrera) hallucinations in 2022's Scream brought him back to the franchise, fans were thrilled to see the return of the woefully unhinged murderer.

Though Ulrich started out his career playing jerks — in addition to Scream, he also starred alongside Neve Campbell in The Craft as jerk jock Chris Hooker, and played Winona Ryder's horrible boyfriend in Boys (1996) — the '90s heartthrob eventually got a chance to branch out.

Over the years, Ulrich has continued to rack up acting credits for As Good as It Gets (1997), Jericho, Law & Order: L.A., and Robot Chicken to name a few. In 2018, he costarred in the comedy-drama Austin Found with Craig Robinson, followed by the horror film Escape Room with Sean Young, and played Jughead's dad on the CW Archie comic book-inspired series Riverdale from 2017 to 2021.

Ulrich — who is father to a twin son and daughter — has recently appeared in Scream VI (2023) and the AMC drama series Parish.

Matthew Lillard (Stu Macher)

As Billy's partner in crime, Stu Macher also ranks among the most ruthless killers under the Ghostface mask. Not because he was one of the first, but because there was no motive. Matthew Lillard embodied Stu like an unstrung violin — eccentric, vicious, and over-the-top, peaking during a stab session with Billy in Sidney's kitchen during the first film's tense climax.

Though he's appeared in various movies including She's All That (1999), The Descendants (2011), and Five Nights at Freddy's (2023), Lillard is probably best known for his portrayal of Shaggy Rogers. After he played the character in a couple of live-action Scooby-Doo films, he started providing the voice for Shaggy for the animated series as well, when Casey Kasem (who had voiced Shaggy since 1969) retired in 2009.

Lillard — who is married with three kids — later guest-starred on House, the 2017 Twin Peaks revival, Good Girls, Supernatural, and American Dad. He's also expanded into filmmaking, making his directorial debut with the 2012 indie flick Fat Kid Rules the World, which didn't garner much buzz but was well-received by critics.

Drew Barrymore (Casey Becker)

Having risen to child stardom in 1982's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and receiving Golden Globe nominations for Irreconcilable Differences (1984) and Guncrazy (1992), Drew Barrymore was one of Scream's most recognizable cast members. The actress was originally supposed to play Sidney Prescott, but, since her busy schedule didn't allow for it, she took on the role of Casey Becker, who was only on screen for 12 minutes before being gutted like a fish — an homage to Janet Leigh's early demise in Psycho (1960). Let's just say, Casey's gory slaying certainly set the tone for the rest of the film.

Following Scream, Barrymore's career continued to flourish, with featured roles in Never Been Kissed (1999), Donnie Darko (2001), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), and opposite Adam Sandler in The Wedding Singer (1998), 50 First Dates (2004), and Blended (2014).

In 2009, Barrymore made her directorial debut with Whip It, starring alongside Elliot Page. A year later, she won a Golden Globe and SAG award for her portrayal of Little Edie in the TV movie Grey Gardens and went on to play Sheila Hammond on the Netflix series Santa Clarita Diet. Since 2020, the mom of two has been busy as the host of her own syndicated talk show, The Drew Barrymore Show.

Jamie Kennedy (Randy Meeks)

Even though he detested sequels, Randy Meeks — the know-it-all expert on genre flicks played by Jamie Kennedy — was essential to the series. Killed in Scream 2 (at least he won a Blockbuster award for his performance!), Randy still appeared in Scream 3 via found video footage. Decades later, his voice explaining the "rules" of a horror movie has stayed with us.

Before he landed his role in Scream, Kennedy played an extra in Dead Poets Society (1989) and had small parts on TV shows like California Dreams and Ellen as well as a memorable role in Romeo + Juliet (1996) as Sampson opposite Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes. His other film credits include Enemy of the State (1998), Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001), and Malibu's Most Wanted (2003).

He's appeared in lots of episodic television, including a starring role on Ghost Whisperer as well as gig voicing a few characters on The Cleveland Show. In the early-2000s, Kennedy even had his own reality show — The Jamie Kennedy Experiment — in which he pulled hidden-camera pranks for three seasons. He still acts on occasion, tours as a stand-up comedian, and hosts the weekly podcast Hate To Break It To Ya.

Rose McGowan (Tatum Riley)

Following her first big role in the 1995 cult classic The Doom Generation, Rose McGowan appeared in Scream as Stu's unsuspecting girlfriend, Tatum. Arguably in the Scream Hall of Fame for the most brutal death, McGowan's character had her head unceremoniously crushed by a garage door.

The actress went on to play mysterious, alluring characters in indie films such as Going All the Way (1997), Southie (1998), and Devil's Flesh (1998), which led to her becoming the face of the clothing brand Bebe in the late-'90s. After she joined the cast of Charmed as telekinetic witch Paige Matthews in 2001, on which she starred for five seasons, McGowan started landing more mainstream parts — firing bullets as the machine-gun-legged stripper in Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino's double-feature film Grindhouse (2007), casting spells as Marique in Conan the Barbarian (2011), and recurring in the role of Teddy on Ryan Murphy's Nip/Tuck, to name a few.

She switched gears in 2014 when she went behind the camera and made her directorial debut with Dawn, which was nominated for the Short Film Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.

In 2017, McGowan became one of the many faces of the #MeToo movement when she came forward with a rape allegation against Harvey Weinstein, later writing the tell-all memoir Brave about her upbringing in a religious cult and experience with sexual assault in Hollywood.

Roger L. Jackson (Ghostface's voice)

It's easy to forget the one constant — and perhaps the scariest — thing about Ghostface is that menacing voice over the phone. Every time viewers hear "What's your favorite scary movie?"— that's Roger Jackson on the other end of the line. He's been a powerful unseen entity for the franchise since 1996, voicing Ghostface in every Scream movie and five episodes of Scream: The TV Series.

Also known for providing the voice of Mojo Jojo, the mad scientist anthropomorphic chimpanzee on The Powerpuff Girls, Jackson's body of work includes various genres and mediums, such as video games like Final Fantasy X-2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, as well as the computer-animated horror-comedy series Monster Island.