Neil Hope

Who was Neil Hope?

Philip Neil Hope, known as Neil Hope, was a Canadian actor best known for playing Derek "Wheels" Wheeler on Degrassi Junior High and Degrassi High in the 1980s and early 1990s. He had earlier played "Griff" in Kids of Degrassi Street.

Hope's last television appearance was in a 2003 Degrassi: The Next Generation episode in which he reunited and reconciled with fellow members of the fictional band, "Zit Remedy". Hope moved around Ontario, living in Windsor and then in Hamilton. Though he died in 2007 in a Hamilton rooming house, his family did not learn of his death until 2012. Hope suffered from type 1 diabetes, the effects of which were aggravated by alcoholism and his failure to keep up with insulin injections to manage the disease. He died of a heart attack.

Hope was the child of alcoholics and struggled with the problem himself. He discussed his parents’ alcoholism in a series called Degrassi Talks, in 1992, and also made a documentary about children of alcoholic parents, called The Darker Side.