Sidney Prescott is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Scream franchise. The character was created by Kevin Williamson and is portrayed by Canadian actress Neve Campbell. She first appeared in Scream (1996) followed by four sequels: Scream 2 (1997), Scream 3 (2000), Scream 4 (2011), and Scream (2022). 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, Scream 2, and Scream 3 to the fame that will come from killing her in Scream 4, due to the fame she herself has obtained as a survivor of the murder spree in the original 3 films. 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 (Lynn McRee). 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 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 television series Party of Five. Campbell 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 (Courteney Cox) and Dewey Riley (David Arquette). Campbell initially refused requests to return for Scream 4, with scripts written with her character's absence in mind, but ultimately agreed to return.