In a single night, four friends go from a fun evening at the beach to running over a man and covering up the crime in I Know What You Did Last Summer. They make a pact to never speak of the incident again—until one of them receives an anonymous letter a year later. What follows is a hook-wielding man hungry for revenge, hunting them down one by one, intent on not stopping until they are all dead.
I Know What You Did Last Summer is a slasher film released in 1997 and is inspired by Lois Duncan’s 1973 novel of the same name. It’s credited for being one of the iconic films that revived the slasher genre in the ‘90s. Grossing $125.3 million worldwide, the movie also launched many of the original cast, including Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jennifer Love Hewitt, and Freddie Prinze Jr., into Hollywood stardom. Romance was also in the cards for Gellar and Prinze Jr. who eventually married each other after meeting on set.
Where is the cast of I Know What You Did Last Summer now? We let you know and tell you where to stream some of their best movies and TV shows.
Jennifer Love Hewitt (Julie James)
After being the only one in the gang to survive a terrifying summer, Hewitt reprised her role in the sequel I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), which takes place a year after the chilling original, with new horrors finding her while on vacation in the Bahamas. Hewitt followed this with Heartbreakers (2001), starring alongside Ray Liotta and Gene Hackman.
She also worked in TV with lead roles in shows like Ghost Whisperer (2005-2010), a supernatural series where she plays a woman living an allegedly normal life—only she can communicate with spirits; The Client List (2012-2013), where she portrayed a struggling single mom buried in debt forced to accept a questionable job after being abandoned by her husband; and Criminal Minds (2014-2015). She has been playing Maddie Buckley in 9-1-1 since 2018 and is set to return as Julie James in the fourth installment of the I Know What You Did Last Summer franchise on July 18, 2025.
Sarah Michelle Gellar (Helen Shivers)
Gellar, who was already making waves as the chosen-by-fate teen slayer Buffy Summers in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (1997-2003)—where she saved her fictional town of Sunnydale from demons and monsters with her best friends—went on to become a horror icon with lead roles as a doomed sorority sister in Scream 2 (1997), the manipulative Kathryn Merteuil in Cruel Intentions (1999), and a care worker haunted by a deadly spirit in The Grudge (2004). She played Daphne Blake in both Scooby-Doo movies (2002, 2004), marking another collaboration with her now-husband Freddie Prinze Jr.
Later, she worked in TV series like The Crazy Ones (2013-2014) and even lent her voice to the character of the Seventh Sister in Star Wars: Rebels (2015-2016). Recently, she appeared in the Netflix film Do Revenge (2022) and is currently guest-starring on Dexter: Original Sin. A Buffy reboot is also in the works and is set to bring this beloved character (and a host of new ones) back to our screens!
Ryan Phillippe (Barry Cox)
Phillippe joined the cast of Cruel Intentions, alongside his IKWYDLS co-star Sarah Michelle Gellar, playing the wealthy and charming Sebastian Valmont. He went on to act in acclaimed dramas like Gosford Park (2001), a murder mystery with an ensemble cast where everyone’s a suspect; Crash (2004), which won three Academy Awards; Clint Eastwood’s directorial venture, Flags of Our Fathers (2006), in which he played John Bradley; and The Bang Bang Club (2011) portraying the lives of one of four photojournalists active during the apartheid period in South Africa. On TV, he starred in series like Shooter (2016-2018), and, as of 2025, is leading the Amazon Prime Video series, Motorheads.
Phillippe was married to his Cruel Intentions co-star Reese Witherspoon for seven years, but they divorced in 2008 due to irreconcilable differences. They share joint custody of their two children.
Freddie Prinze Jr. (Ray Bronson)
Prinze Jr. returned in I Still Know What You Did Last Summer and went on to star in his first leading role with Rachel Leigh Cook in the hit romantic comedy She’s All That (1999) as the all-star high school jock who makes a bet to turn the least popular girl into the prom queen. He followed it up with subsequent lead roles in Boys and Girls (2000), Down to You (2000) with Julia Stiles (of 10 Things I Hate About You fame), and Summer Catch (2001). He also co-starred in Scooby-Doo and its sequel Scooby-Doo 2.
On TV, he has appeared in Boston Legal (2004-2006) and voiced Kanan Jarrus in Star Wars: Rebels (2014-2018). He is also set to reprise his role as Ray Bronson in the fourth I Know What You Did Last Summer installment, releasing in 2025.
Johnny Galecki (Max Neurick)
Galecki began appearing as a guest on the hit ABC sitcom Roseanne (1992-1997) and was eventually made a permanent fixture in the cast. He has been in films like Suicide Kings (1997), where he played a college student involved in the kidnapping of a Mafia figure, and The Opposite of Sex (1998), a dark comedy starring Christina Ricci.
Galecki became one of TV’s highest paid actors by playing the nerdy and awkward Caltech experimental physicist Leonard Hofstadter, who lives with a brilliant and neurotic roommate and falls in love with the girl next door, in The Big Bang Theory (2007-2019). The show, which ran for 12 seasons, was a huge success, and Leonard became a defining role for Galecki, earning him love from fans all over the world.
Bridgette Wilson (Elsa Shivers)
Before IKWYDLS, where she played the hostile older sister of Gellar’s character, Wilson made her film debut in Last Action Hero (1993) and the fantasy film Mortal Kombat (1995). She later appeared in the horror movie House on Haunted Hill (1999), where five guests are offered $1 million each if they can survive the night at an abandoned insane asylum; the romcom The Wedding Planner (2001) alongside Jennifer Lopez, playing the role of heiress Fran Donnelly; and Shopgirl (2005), based on Steve Martin’s novella of the same title. Wilson married tennis legend Pete Sampras in 2000 and slowly stepped away from the spotlight. She retired from acting around 2008 and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2022.
Anne Heche (Melissa “Missy” Egan)
Heche was a seasoned actress who began her acting career playing twins on the soap opera Another World (1987-1991), earning her a Daytime Emmy Award. She was also nominated for a Tony Award (for the Broadway play Twentieth Century) and a Primetime Emmy (for Gracie’s Choice). She had standout roles in the crime drama Donnie Brasco (1997), Six Days, Seven Nights (1998) with Harrison Ford, and the 1998 remake of Psycho.
She worked in TV shows like Hung (2009-2011), portraying a mother trying to reconnect with her drifting children. She also had a recurring role in Chicago P.D. (2018-2019). Heche appeared across a variety of genres until her untimely death in 2022.
Muse Watson (Benjamin “Ben” Willis/ the Fisherman)
Watson played the menacing fisherman-garbed killer who terrorized the four main characters (spoiler!) in I Know What You Did Last Summer and returned in the 1998 sequel to once again unleash dread and panic on a new batch of unsuspecting young adults. He is a veteran actor who has appeared in over 60 television and film roles. Some of the recurring roles include credits in NCIS (2006-2017) and Prison Break (2005-2008), as well as horror movies like From Dusk Till Dawn 2: Texas Blood Money (1999) and American Outlaws (2001). Off-screen, Watson lives with his wife and daughter and is a strong advocate for autism awareness.
Where To Watch The 'I Know What You Did Last Summer' (1997) Cast Now Online
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