Neve Campbell

**Neve Adrianne Campbell** (born October 3, 1973) is a Canadian actress. Campbell is recognized for her work in the drama and horror genres, and is regarded as a sex symbol and scream queen. She has appeared on *People* magazine's list of "50 Most Beautiful People" twice. Campbell rose to international prominence for starring as Sidney Prescott in Wes Craven's slasher film *Scream* (1996), which emerged as a critical and commercial success—becoming the highest grossing slasher film for over 20 years—and obtained a cult following. The success of the film spawned the *Scream* franchise, for which she reprised the role in the series' second (1997), third (2000), fourth (2011) and fifth (2022) installments, playing the role for 25 years. She will star as Nicole "Nic" Searcy in the upcoming ABC drama animated series ***Avalon***.

## Biography

Campbell was born on October 3, 1973, in Guelph, Ontario, where she was raised. Her Dutch mother, Marnie (*née* Neve), is a yoga instructor and psychologist from Amsterdam. She descends from Sephardic Jews who immigrated to the Netherlands and converted to Catholicism. Her Scottish father, Gerry Campbell, immigrated to Canada from his native Glasgow, and taught high school drama classes in Mississauga, Ontario. Campbell's maternal grandparents ran a theatre company in the Netherlands, and her paternal grandparents were also performers. Campbell has an older brother Christian Campbell and two younger half-brothers Alex Campbell and Damian Campbell. Her parents divorced when she was two years old.

At age six, she saw a performance of *The Nutcracker* and decided she wanted to take ballet, enrolling at the Erinvale School of Dance. She later moved into residence at the National Ballet School of Canada, training there and appearing in performances of *The Nutcracker* and *Sleeping Beauty*. After accumulating numerous dance-related injuries, Campbell moved into acting at the age of 15, performing in *The Phantom of the Opera* at the Canon Theatre in Toronto while attending John F. Ross Collegiate Vocational Institute in Guelph, where she trained in acting and worked in theatre.

Campbell's early work included a 1980s Eaton's department store Christmas commercial, and a 1991 Coca-Cola commercial; she promoted the latter's sponsorship on Bryan Adams' Waking Up the Nation Tour (1991–1992).

## Career

### 1990s

Campbell made an uncredited cameo appearance on the series *My Secret Identity* in 1991. The next year, she played the minor role of Laura Capelli on an episode of *The Kids in the Hall*, and landed her first starring role as Daisy in the Canadian drama series *Catwalk*. She subsequently made several guest appearances on various Canadian television shows, such as *Are You Afraid of the Dark?* and *Kung Fu: The Legend Continues*, both occurring in 1994.

Her first widely released film was *The Craft* (1996), which she starred in alongside Robin Tunney, Fairuza Balk and Rachel True. The movie was a surprise hit, earning $55 million against a budget of $15 million. Her work in *The Craft* was noticed by director Wes Craven, who specifically asked her to audition for the role of Sidney Prescott in 1996's *Scream*, believing that the actress could be "innocent", but also handle herself once emotional and psychical conflicts arose. *Scream* was released to major commercial and critical success, earning over $173 million at the worldwide box office which made it the highest-grossing slasher film until the release of *Halloween* (2018). Her performance received significant critical praise. *Variety* magazine described Campbell as "charismatic", and the Los Angeles Times called both her acting and the character "iconic". For her performance, she won the Fangoria Chainsaw Award for Best Actress and the Saturn Award for Best Actress.

In 1997, Campbell reprised the role of Sidney in *Scream 2*, which earned over $170 million and alike to the first installment, was critically acclaimed. She won her the MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance. Patrick Mullen of Medium stated that "I've always appreciated Neve Campbell in the lead just as much. She plays the role so straight while everyone else winks at the camera. It may sound like it wouldn't work, but it actually does. Sidney Prescott is a more compelling heroine than you usually get in a horror movie." She won the MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance for her work in *Scream 2*.

### 2000s

Campbell starred again as Sidney Prescott in *Scream 3* (2000), which earned over $160 million but marked a temporary end for the franchise following mixed reviews. In his review of *Scream 3*, Roger Ebert wrote: "The camera loves her. She could become a really big star and then giggle at clips from this film at her AFI tribute." In retrospective, the parallels between *Scream 3*'s themes of abuse and the Harvey Weinstein sexual abuse cases came to light.

### 2010s

In 2011, 11 years after the previous installment, Campbell made her comeback to the *Scream* franchise with *Scream 4* (2011), which received positive reviews and earned over $97 million. For her performance, she was nominated for Best Actress at the Scream Awards in 2011. On reprising the role of Sidney Prescott in future works, Campbell stated that "It would have to be something really special and really different. They'd have to be really convincing about who they decided to bring on as director, and I'd still have to do a bit of soul-searching on that one."

### 2020s

In September 2020, it was confirmed that Campbell would be reprising her role as Sidney Prescott for the fifth *Scream* film, directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett. She was initially "apprehensive" during production due to the passing of Wes Craven, however she was convinced to join once "the new directors came to me with this beautiful letter saying that they've become directors and love film because of these films, and because of Wes, and they really want to be true to his story and his journey with these films, so I was really happy to hear that." The film was released on January 14, 2022, and earned widespread acclaim. It was also a major commercial success, grossing over $135 million against a budget of $24 million, making it the sixth highest-grossing film of 2022. Campbell was lauded for her performance once more, and she was particularly praised for her "fresh" take on the role of Prescott. *The Hollywood Reporter* wrote that "... it's a pleasure to see Campbell again in fine form as Sidney, striding back into Woodsboro to take care of unfinished business." *Elle* magazine named her the "Reigning Queen of *Scream*" and stated that "Sidney might not have that impact on people were it not for Campbell's portrayal, rife with vulnerability, intelligence, and a palatable dose of humor."

Campbell was approached to reprise the role of Sidney Prescott in the planned sixth installment in the *Scream* franchise, to which she has expressed hesitancy. At the Mad Monster Party Convention, she stated that "There’s no script yet. There is a draft coming in soon is what I was told. Actually, I was supposed to call a producer yesterday, because he wanted to talk to me about what's going on. You know, we’ll see. I’ll read the script and see how I feel." In June 2022, it was announced she would not be returning to the *Scream* franchise after salary negotiations stalled with Paramount. She stated, "As a woman I have had to work extremely hard in my career to establish my value, especially when it comes to *Scream*. I felt the offer that was presented to me did not equate to the value I have brought to the franchise." *IndieWire* noted Campbell had spent 26 years acting in the franchise, and announced it was "the end of an era."

In August 2022, it was announced that Campbell had been cast in the lead role of the upcoming ABC series, *Avalon*, as Detective Nicole "Nic" Searcy.

### Personal life

Campbell has stated, "I am a practicing Catholic, but my lineage is Jewish, so if someone asks me if I'm Jewish, I say yes."

Campbell married Jeff Colt on April 3, 1995, and divorced in May 1998. In 2005, Campbell began dating John Light, whom she met while filming *Investigating Sex*. They became engaged in December 2005 and married in Malibu, California, on May 5, 2007. The couple lived together in Islington, London for five years, until Campbell filed for divorce on June 30, 2010, in Los Angeles.

In March 2012, Campbell and her partner, actor JJ Feild, confirmed that they were expecting their first child together. Their first son, Caspian, was born in August 2012. On June 29, 2018, Campbell announced on Instagram the adoption of their second son, Raynor.

Campbell revealed during an interview on the *Kelly Clarkson Show* in 2021 that she survived a bear attack at the age of 17, an incident that occurred while filming an unnamed project. Describing the attack, she said "I dipped my hand in honey and I run to this rock, and I turn around and I put my hand out and the bear is not slowing down and he's not coming for my hand, he grabs me by the leg and he pulls me through the forest. My mother was visiting set and she's screaming. The whole crew is frozen because nobody can believe what's happening. All I can think to say is, ‘He's biting me,’ like it's not obvious." Neither she, nor the rest of the personnel present, suffered any life-threatening injuries.

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