Skeet Ulrich rose to fame in Hollywood with the 1996 horror classic Scream, directed by Wes Craven and written by Kevin Williamson. His biggest project at the time was The Craft, which also starred future Scream lead Neve Campbell.
Throughout his career, we have seen Skeet Ulrich prove his range in multiple projects that differ in genre, content, target audience and even the type of character he is playing.
Ulrich played the memorable teen killer Billy Loomis in Scream, whose actions are ultimately pivotal to the film’s events. The cast also included Drew Barrymore, Courteney Cox, David Arquette, Matthew Lillard and Neve Campbell.
At the time of Scream‘s release, Ulrich was 26 and had been working professionally in Hollywood for seven years.
As expected with a major Hollywood hit, Ulrich went on to land more roles on the back of Scream’s success — he appeared in The Newton Boys (1998) with Matthew McConaughey and Ethan Hawke in which he played their on-screen brother, Track Down (2000) with Tom Berenger and The Magic of Ordinary Days (2005) with Keri Russell.
Arguably, it can be said that Ulrich’s greatest success over the past decade has been in television, beginning with his lead role as Jake Green in Jericho, a post-apocalyptic drama on CBS that ran for three seasons. Interestingly, this show also starred a pre-Walking Dead Lennie James.
Ulrich also played the role of Rex Winters, a Police Detective, in fifteen episodes across the Law and Order franchise on NBC – one as a guest star on Special Victims Unit with the other fourteen as a regular on Law and Order: LA.
(Bottom) – Rex Winters
In 2017, Ulrich landed two key roles — real life abductor Brian David Mitchell in the acclaimed Lifetime television film I Am Elizabeth Smart which tells the story of the then 14-year-old’s kidnapping by a family acquaintance, opposite Alana Boden as Smart. The real Elizabeth Smart found the film so accurate that she cannot watch it for a second time.
He also began a guest role on CW’s Riverdale – a teen drama based on Archie Comics – as FP Jones, father to regular character Jughead (Cole Sprouse. The character’s popularity amongst fans led to Ulrich becoming a series regular from the second season onwards.
As well as Riverdale’s fourth season that began in October, Ulrich will also be appearing in the upcoming film Bios alongside Tom Hanks, Caleb Landry Jones (Get Out) and Laura Harrier (Spider-Man Homecoming), which is due for release in 2020.