Ghostface is the masked killer at the center of the Scream franchise, and the trick that has carried the series since Wes Craven's 1996 original is that Ghostface is never one person. The costume and Roger L. Jackson's voice on the phone stay the same, while whoever is underneath changes with every movie. Across seven Scream films, the Scream TV series, and a growing list of video games including Dead by Daylight, Mortal Kombat 1, Call of Duty, and Fortnite, the mask has been worn by a grieving mother, a jealous cousin, a family of avengers, toxic Stab fans, and Sidney Prescott's own neighbor. This page covers every Ghostface killer, how each one died, and every major game appearance. Spoilers for the entire Scream franchise follow.
Who Is Ghostface in Scream?
In the Scream universe, Ghostface is a disguise rather than a character with one backstory. The costume is a cheap, store-bought Halloween outfit that anyone could pick up, and that is exactly what makes the reveal at the end of each movie work. Every film builds a suspect list out of boyfriends, best friends, cops, and reporters, and the killers almost always turn out to be people close to the main character. Kevin Williamson created Ghostface for his original screenplay, and the name itself comes from Tatum Riley (Rose McGowan), who mockingly calls the killer "Mr. Ghostface" right before her death in the first movie.
Because the identity changes, there is no single Ghostface motive. Billy Loomis wanted revenge, Stu Macher blamed peer pressure, and Mickey Altieri wanted fame. Richie Kirsch and Amber Freeman in Scream (2022) were obsessed with Stab, the in-universe movie series based on the Woodsboro murders. The Bailey family in Scream VI wanted revenge for Richie's death, and Scream 7's Jessica Bowden was fixated on Sidney Prescott as a final girl and wanted Sidney's daughter Tatum to replace her. What stays consistent is the taunting phone call and the habit of wiping blood off the blade between thumb and forefinger after a kill, a mannerism stuntman Dane Farwell brought to the role in the first film.
The Ghostface Mask: Fun World, Father Death, and the Buck 120 Knife
The Ghostface mask existed before Scream did. Fun World developed it for novelty stores during the 1991 and 1992 Halloween seasons as part of its Fantastic Faces line, where it was known as "The Peanut-Eyed Ghost." Producer Marianne Maddalena found the mask in a house while scouting locations for the film and brought it to Wes Craven, who then had to work out a deal with Fun World to use it. Before that deal closed, KNB Effects built a custom version that Craven wasn't happy with, and that KNB mask is still visible in the Casey Becker opening and the Principal Himbry murder because those scenes were shot first.
Fun World licensing director R.J. Torbert gave the mask the name GhostFace ahead of the movie's release, and Fun World still owns the design and the name. The mask gets compared to Edvard Munch's painting The Scream constantly, but designer Brigitte Sleiertin has said the painting wasn't where her influence came from. Inside the movie, the costume is sold in packaging labeled "Father Death," an outfit that didn't actually exist in stores at the time since Fun World only sold the mask. The robe was custom-made for the film, and it's black because Maddalena felt a black cloak would be scarier than the white one originally planned. The knife is a prop based on the Buck 120 hunting knife.
Who Voices Ghostface? Roger L. Jackson
Roger L. Jackson has voiced Ghostface over the phone in every Scream movie since 1996, and in Scream 7 he's credited simply as "The Voice." Because every killer uses a voice changer that produces that exact voice, Jackson is the one piece of Ghostface that never changes hands. He also voiced Ghostface in Scream: Resurrection, Call of Duty, Mortal Kombat 1, and Fortnite. Outside of Scream, Jackson is the voice of Mojo Jojo in The Powerpuff Girls.
There are only a few exceptions. The killer in the first two seasons of the Scream TV series used a different mask and was voiced by Mike Vaughn, and Dead by Daylight's Ghost Face is voiced by Filip Ivanovic. Ghostface rarely speaks on screen in the movies at all, which keeps the voice tied to the phone instead of to whoever is under the mask.
Ghostface in Scream (1996): Billy Loomis and Stu Macher
The original Ghostface was two people. Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich), Sidney Prescott's boyfriend, and Stu Macher (Matthew Lillard), her friend Tatum's boyfriend, were revealed at Stu's house party as the killers behind the Woodsboro murders. They had also murdered Sidney's mother, Maureen Prescott, a year earlier and framed Cotton Weary (Liev Schreiber) for it. Billy blamed Maureen's affair with his father for driving his mother away, while Stu eventually admitted to peer pressure. Their plan was to kill Sidney and frame her father, Neil Prescott.
Sidney turned the tables by calling them in the Ghostface voice herself. She killed Stu by dropping a television on his head, and after Gale Weathers shot Billy, Sidney finished him with a bullet to the head.
Ghostface in Scream 2: Mickey Altieri and Mrs. Loomis
Scream 2 moved the killings to Windsor College, where Sidney was a student. The first killer revealed was Mickey Altieri (Timothy Olyphant), a film student and friend of Sidney's boyfriend Derek, who wanted the fame that would come with getting caught. His partner was Billy's mother, Nancy Loomis (Laurie Metcalf), who had been hanging around the investigation posing as a reporter named Debbie Salt and wanted revenge on Sidney for her son's death.
Mrs. Loomis shot Mickey to double-cross him, then Cotton Weary shot her in the neck. Mickey sprang back up and was shot by Gale and Sidney, and Sidney put one more bullet in Mrs. Loomis's head just in case.
Ghostface in Scream 3: Roman Bridger
Scream 3 is the only film where a single killer is unmasked. Ghostface was Roman Bridger (Scott Foley), the director of Stab 3 and Sidney's half-brother. Maureen Prescott had given birth to Roman during a two-year period in Hollywood under the name Rina Reynolds, then gave him up for adoption and rejected him when he found her years later. Roman stalked Maureen and showed Billy footage of her with Billy's father, which set off the entire chain of events in the first two movies. This version of Ghostface also used a voice changer to mimic other characters, including Maureen.
Sidney stabbed Roman, and Dewey Riley killed him with a shot to the head. Wes Craven's commentary suggests actress Angelina Tyler (Emily Mortimer) was originally a second killer in cut material, but Scream VI lists Roman as the only Ghostface behind the Hollywood killings.
Ghostface in Scream 4: Jill Roberts and Charlie Walker
Scream 4 brought Ghostface back to Woodsboro on the 15th anniversary of the original murders. The killers were Sidney's cousin Jill Roberts (Emma Roberts) and her friend Charlie Walker (Rory Culkin), who filmed their kills with hidden cameras. Jill was jealous of the fame Sidney got from surviving and wanted to become the sole survivor of a new massacre, and Charlie went along for the same reason and because he was in love with her.
Jill betrayed Charlie and stabbed him through the heart, then injured herself to look like a victim. When she learned in the hospital that Sidney had survived, she tried to finish the job, and Sidney shot her through the heart.
Ghostface in Scream (2022): Richie Kirsch and Amber Freeman
The fifth movie picked up 25 years after the original massacre and introduced sisters Sam and Tara Carpenter, with Sam revealed as Billy Loomis's daughter. The killers were Sam's boyfriend Richie Kirsch (Jack Quaid) and Tara's friend Amber Freeman (Mikey Madison), two obsessive Stab fans who hated the newest Stab movie and wanted real murders to inspire a "requel" that returned the series to its old formula. Their plan was to frame Sam, and along the way they killed Dewey Riley.
Gale shot Amber, who fell onto a burning stove, and Tara finished her with a shot to the head when she came back for one more attack. Sam stabbed Richie repeatedly, slit his throat, and shot him in the head.
Ghostface in Scream VI: Wayne, Ethan, and Quinn Bailey
Scream VI moved to New York and opened with a fake-out. Film student Jason Carvey (Tony Revolori) was the first Ghostface on screen, killing professor Laura Crane (Samara Weaving) as part of a plan to finish Richie's movie. His roommate Greg Bruckner was his accomplice and the planner behind it, but Greg was already dead by the time Jason phoned him, and the voice on the other end was the real Ghostface, who then killed Jason too. The main Ghostface turned out to be three people from Richie's family: his father, Detective Wayne Bailey (Dermot Mulroney), and his siblings Quinn Bailey (Liana Liberato), who had faked her death, and Ethan Landry (Jack Champion). They wanted revenge on Sam for Richie's death and spread rumors online that she had been the real mastermind in Woodsboro.
Sam shot Quinn in the head. She then put on her father's Ghostface mask, called Wayne in the Ghostface voice, and stabbed him to death. Ethan got one more attack in before Kirby Reed dropped a television on his head, the same TV that killed Stu Macher, which had been sitting in the killers' shrine.
Ghostface in Scream 7: Jessica Bowden, Marco Davis, and Karl Gibbs
Scream 7 brought Neve Campbell back as Sidney, now living in Pine Grove, Indiana with her husband Mark Evans (Joel McHale) and daughter Tatum (Isabel May). The movie opened at Stu Macher's old house, now a tourist rental, where Ghostface killed Scott (Jimmy Tatro) and Madison (Michelle Randolph) and burned the place down. This Ghostface swapped phone calls for video messages from Stu Macher, which turned out to be AI deepfakes.
There were three killers. The first was Karl Gibbs (Kraig Dane), a patient who escaped from the Fallbrook mental institution and attacked Sidney's family in the mask before being run over by a car carrying Gale, Chad, and Mindy. The second was Marco Davis (Ethan Embry), a Fallbrook employee with a tech background who helped Karl escape and built the Stu deepfakes. The mastermind was Sidney's neighbor Jessica Bowden (Anna Camp), who said Sidney's book Out of Darkness inspired her to kill her abusive husband. After checking herself into Fallbrook, she met Marco, and the two planned to kill Sidney in front of Tatum and make Tatum the new final girl. Jessica also killed her own son, Lucas (Asa Germann), the victim of the movie's beer tap kill.
A wounded Mark freed Tatum's legs from the tape, and when Tatum lunged at Jessica, the opening let Sidney shoot Marco in the head. Sidney and Tatum then fought Jessica together and shot her repeatedly in the head.
How Many Ghostface Killers Are There in Scream?
Counting only the main killers unmasked in each movie, there are 15 Ghostface killers across the seven Scream films. Scream 3 is the only one with a single killer, Scream VI and Scream 7 each have three, and every other entry has two. Adding Jason Carvey from the Scream VI opening brings the movie total to 16. The Scream TV series adds two more Ghostface killers in Scream: Resurrection, plus the Lakewood Slasher killers from the first two seasons, who wore a different mask and aren't technically Ghostface.
Is Stu Macher Alive in Scream 7?
No. Stu Macher died when Sidney dropped a television on his head in the 1996 original, and Scream 7 doesn't change that. Matthew Lillard appears throughout the movie, but every Stu message Sidney receives is a deepfake Marco Davis created, and Marco's story about an amnesiac John Doe at Fallbrook who looked like Stu was a lie to throw Sidney and Gale off. The same deepfake setup brought back Nancy Loomis, Roman Bridger, and Dewey Riley in video form. Stu's survival had been a fan theory for years, and Scream 7's opening, with tourists visiting his house because of rumors he lived, plays directly off of it.
Ghostface Survivors: Sidney Prescott and the Final Girls
Sidney Prescott: Played by Neve Campbell, Sidney is Ghostface's main target in five of the seven movies, Scream, Scream 2, Scream 3, Scream 4, and Scream 7, and has killed more Ghostfaces than any other character, starting with Billy and Stu.
Gale Weathers: Played by Courteney Cox, the tabloid reporter turned author has survived every Ghostface spree she's been part of, and her books are the basis for the in-universe Stab movies.
Dewey Riley: Played by David Arquette, Dewey survived four movies before Ghostface killed him in Scream (2022), and he killed Roman Bridger in Scream 3.
Sam Carpenter: Played by Melissa Barrera, Billy Loomis's daughter killed Richie Kirsch, Quinn Bailey, and Wayne Bailey across Scream (2022) and Scream VI.
Tara Carpenter: Played by Jenna Ortega, Sam's half-sister survived the opening attack of Scream (2022) and killed Amber Freeman.
Kirby Reed: Played by Hayden Panettiere, the Scream 4 survivor returned in Scream VI as an FBI agent and killed Ethan Landry.
Tatum Evans: Played by Isabel May, Sidney's daughter was the target of Jessica Bowden's plan in Scream 7 and helped kill her.
Ghostface in the Scream TV Series and Scream: Resurrection
The first two seasons of MTV's Scream series didn't use Ghostface at all. Licensing issues meant the show's killer, the Lakewood Slasher, wore a different mask tied to the show's own Brandon James backstory and was voiced by Mike Vaughn. Season 1's killer was Piper Shaw (Amelia Rose Blaire), and Season 2's was her boyfriend Kieran Wilcox (Amadeus Serafini).
The real Ghostface came back for Season 3, a reboot titled Scream: Resurrection that premiered on VH1 on July 8, 2019, with the Fun World mask and Roger L. Jackson's voice. The killers were Beth (Giorgia Whigham), a horror-obsessed sociopath, and Jamal "Jay" Elliot (Tyga), the half-brother of lead character Deion Elliot (RJ Cyler). Resurrection was a standalone story with no connection to the movies or the earlier seasons.
Ghost Face in Dead by Daylight: Danny Johnson
Ghost Face joined Dead by Daylight on June 18, 2019 in Chapter XII, and Behaviour Interactive's version isn't anyone from the movies. The Ghost Face license comes through Fun World, which owns the mask, so Behaviour created a new killer to wear it. His name is Danny Johnson, and he went by Jed Olsen while working as a freelance newspaper reporter in the town of Roseville, covering a string of murders he was committing himself. Danny would study his victims for weeks before striking, and when the investigation started pointing at him, he packed up and left Roseville before the Entity pulled him into the Fog.
His power, Night Shroud, makes him Undetectable, with no Terror Radius and no red stain while it's active. While shrouded, he can stalk Survivors to Mark them, which leaves them Exposed and downed in a single hit. Survivors can break the shroud by looking straight at him for a moment when he's close, which is what makes Ghost Face such a cat-and-mouse killer to play against. His three teachable perks are I'm All Ears, Thrilling Tremors, and Furtive Chase. He's one of the licensed killers covered in our Horror Icons of Dead by Daylight breakdown.
Ghostface in Mortal Kombat 1
NetherRealm Studios announced Ghostface at San Diego Comic-Con in July 2024 as one of three guest fighters in the Mortal Kombat 1: Khaos Reigns expansion and Kombat Pack 2, alongside the T-1000 and Conan the Barbarian. Ghostface hit early access for Khaos Reigns owners on November 19, 2024, and went out to everyone on November 26, 2024 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Roger L. Jackson voices him, and a separate Ghostface announcer voice is also available in the game's store.
The marketing kept the identity behind the mask ambiguous, but the game itself reveals Billy Loomis. NetherRealm confirmed Billy as the canon Ghostface for the character's high-resolution Fatal Blows and finishing moves, and he's unmasked with Skeet Ulrich's likeness in Fatal Blows, Fatalities, and Brutalities. Like the movies, the playable version is a group effort, with Billy backed by Black Dragon recruits Kobra as the Enforcer and Kira as the Assassin.
Ghostface's inclusion turned into a meme almost immediately, since he's a guy with a knife standing next to gods, sorcerers, and a liquid metal Terminator. NetherRealm leaned into it, with Johnny Cage calling him out as just a dude with a knife in the reveal before getting stabbed for it.
Ghostface in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Warzone
Ghostface became a playable Operator in Call of Duty on October 19, 2021, as part of The Haunting event during Season Six of Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Warzone. The limited-time Scream Operator Bundle made Ghostface a standalone Operator usable across Multiplayer, Zombies, and Battle Royale, and it launched ahead of the release of Scream (2022) that January. Roger L. Jackson voiced him here too.
Ghostface in Fortnite
Ghostface came to Fortnite on October 10, 2025 as a purchasable skin during Fortnitemares, the game's yearly Halloween event. The event also added a limited-time item called Last Call, a 90s payphone paired with Ghostface's knife, which turns the player holding it into Ghostface, a fitting nod to the idea that anyone can be under the mask. Roger L. Jackson voiced all of Ghostface's lines.
Ghostface in Hunt: Showdown 1896 and Among Us
Ghostface has also turned up in smaller crossovers. Hunt: Showdown 1896 added a Ghostface skin in October 2024 through the Ghost Face Rampage DLC, and Among Us gave players a free, limited-time Ghostface cosmetic in 2022.
Ghostface in Scary Movie
The most famous Ghostface parody comes from Scary Movie in 2000, where the killer is a single person, Doofy Gilmore, played by Dave Sheridan, who also voices the parody Ghostface. Sheridan returned to the role in the 2026 Scary Movie.
