Prinze was cast in a guest role on the ABC TV series Family Matters in 1995. He then appeared in a few programs and made-for-TV movies, before making his motion picture debut in To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday in 1996. In subsequent years, Prinze experienced success with appearances in youth-oriented movies. Scream (1996), I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and its sequel, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer (1998), made him well-known among teenage audiences. In his first leading role, the romantic comedy She's All That (1999), he was very successful at the box office. The film grossed $63 million in the United States.