Neve Campbell's Real Name: Neve Adrianne Campbell

Quick answer: Neve Campbell's full name is Neve Adrianne Campbell. She was born on October 3, 1973, in Guelph, Ontario, Canada, and grew up in Toronto. She trained at Canada's National Ballet School before acting, starred in Party of Five, and became famous as Sidney Prescott in the Scream films (The Canadian Encyclopedia; Library of Congress).

Real name and early life

The Canadian Encyclopedia opens its entry with "Neve Adrianne Campbell, actor, producer (born 3 October 1973 in Guelph, ON)." It says she grew up in Toronto and attended Earl Haig Secondary School. The Library of Congress name authority files her as "Campbell, Neve, 1973-."

Dance came first. The encyclopedia says she was accepted into the National Ballet School of Canada at age 9 and appeared in Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker. In a 2023 CBC interview she called ballet her first artistic love and named dancer Karen Kain as her childhood idol. She also described the training as gruelling: "I was struggling physically. I just had a lot of injuries from very early." Her family stayed connected to the company; she told CBC her father performs as a supernumerary and her stepmother worked in its wardrobe department for 35 years.

At 14, the encyclopedia says, she joined the Toronto production of The Phantom of the Opera as its youngest cast member.

Career highlights

After the Canadian series Catwalk (1992–93), Campbell moved to Los Angeles at 20. She was cast as Julia Salinger in the teen drama Party of Five (1994–2000). Wes Craven's Scream (1996) made her an international star, and by 24 she had appeared on the cover of Time. She returned in Scream 2, Scream 3, and Scream 4. Her other films include The Craft (1996), Wild Things (1998), and Three to Tango (1999).

She wrote the story for and produced The Company (2003), a film about Chicago's Joffrey Ballet drawn from her own dance experience, and persuaded Robert Altman to direct it. Altman also directed her on the London stage in Arthur Miller's Resurrection Blues in 2006. In 2023 she executive produced Swan Song, a CBC documentary series about Karen Kain's farewell production of Swan Lake.

She sat out Scream VI after a pay dispute. She returned as Sidney Prescott in Scream 7, which opened on February 27, 2026, according to AP and Variety.

Name notes for searchers

Neve Campbell is her real name. Neve is her given first name, not a stage name, and Adrianne is her middle name. The Canadian Encyclopedia notes that she has been a spokesperson for the Tourette Syndrome Foundation of Canada; her younger brother has Tourette syndrome.