Born in Brighton, Brian Neve went to Worthing High School, and to the Universities of Reading and Essex. For much of his academic career he worked at the University of Bath, becoming Reader in Film and Politics. He taught film and politics courses, and supervised and examined Masters and PhD students, leaving Bath University in 2014. He taught on the European Film MA. Since 2019 he has been Visiting Fellow, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK (renewed, 2025).

Neve was awarded a AHRB Leave of Absence Award, and was an adviser to the Amiens Film Festival (re its Cy Endfield retrospective). He was an invited speaker, Congress on the Blacklist, Complutense University, Madrid. He interviewed filmmakers including Budd Schulberg, Cy Endfield, Fred Zinnemann, Elia Kazan, Abraham Polonsky, Ben Barzman, Dede Allen, Berhard Vorhaus, Pierre Rissient and Christopher Trumbo. His article, ‘HUAC, the Blacklist and the Decline of Social Cinema,’ appeared in Peter Lev’s volume for the Cinema History Project Charles Scribner’s/University of California Press (2003/2006).