Sidney Prescott

Sidney Prescott is a fictional character and the primary protagonist of the Scream series. The character was created by Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven and is portrayed by Canadian actress Neve Campbell. She first appeared in Scream (1996) followed by three sequels: Scream 2 (1997), Scream 3 (2000) and Scream 4 (2011). The character appears in the Scream films as the target of a series of killers who adopt the Ghostface persona, a ghost mask and black cloak, to pursue her. In each film, the Ghostface killers often murder people close to Sidney and taunt her by phone with threats and intimate knowledge of her life or the murder of her mother, leading to a final confrontation where the true killer is revealed.

The killers that target Sidney have varying motivations ranging from revenge in Scream to the fame that will come from killing her in Scream 2, due to the fame she herself has obtained as a survivor of the murder spree in the original film. She first becomes the focus of her boyfriend Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) and his friend Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard), Billy seeking revenge for his mother's abandonment following his father's affair with Sidney's mother Maureen Prescott. Scream 3 later reveals that Billy learned of this affair through Roman Bridger (Scott Foley), Sidney's half-brother, himself seeking revenge for his abandonment and rejection by Maureen, sparking the chain of events that permeate each film.

Drew Barrymore was originally cast as Sidney Prescott but scheduling conflicts led to her taking a smaller role, with the lead being offered instead to Campbell, who at the time was starring in the TV show Party of Five. She was hesitant to take another horror role after finishing work on The Craft (1996) but took the opportunity as it would be her first leading role in a feature film. Campbell reprised the role in Scream 2 and Scream 3 though her own scheduling conflicts meant she could only film for a short period of time while the third film was in production. This resulted in her character's role being reduced significantly from prior installments and focus was shifted onto the series' other lead characters, Gale Weathers and Dewey Riley. Campbell initially refused requests for her to return for Scream 4, with scripts written with her character's absence in mind, but ultimately agreed to return.

The character is depicted as an intelligent, resourceful young woman who slowly becomes stronger over the course of the series as she attempts to overcome the threats and deaths around her. Neve Campbell's role as Sidney Prescott has received significant critical praise throughout the series, earning her the title of Scream Queen in the 1990s and won her the Saturn Award for Best Actress in 1997 for Scream and the MTV Award for Best Female Performance in 1998 for her role in Scream 2.