Emma Roberts
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Age: 19
Emma Rose Roberts is an American actress, the daughter of actor Eric Roberts and the niece of actresses Lisa Roberts Gillan and Julia Roberts. Roberts made her acting debut at the age of nine in the film Blow and is known for her role as the lead character in the Nickelodeon television series Unfabulous, as well as her roles in the films Aquamarine and Nancy Drew.
Roberts is also a pop singer; her debut album, Unfabulous and More, was released in 2005.
Roberts was born in Rhinebeck, New York, the daughter of actor Eric Roberts and his girlfriend Kelly Cunningham.
Emma's half sister, Grace Nickels — the daughter of her mother and former L.A. Guns bassist Kelly Nickels — was born in early 2001. In a 2005 interview, Roberts stated that she is "definitely closer to [her] mum and stepdad and [she doesn't] see [her] real father much".
During her childhood, Roberts spent a lot of time on the sets of the films that her aunt Julia Roberts was starring in. These experiences sparked a desire in Roberts, from the age of five, to follow her father and aunts into the film industry Although her mother initially opposed, wanting her daughter to have a normal childhood, Roberts made her acting debut in Ted Demme's 2001 drama Blow — the first movie she ever auditioned for — at the age of nine. In the film she portrayed Kristina Jung, the daughter of Johnny Depp's character, cocaine smuggler George Jung. As the film is rated R, her mother reportedly would not allow Roberts to see it before she turns eighteen. However, director Ted Demme produced a tape for her that featured only the scenes she appeared in However, during her burgeoning career, Roberts did take time to attend the Archer School for Girls, in Los Angeles, California.
In 2001, Roberts also had a role in Leif Tilden's 10-minute short bigLove (which also starred her future stepfather, Kelly Nickels), and was an uncredited extra in one of Julia Roberts' scenes in America's Sweethearts She went on to appear in smaller roles in two family films: in 2002's Grand Champion, as the sister of the main character Buddy (Jacob Fisher); and in 2003's Spymate, as the kidnapped daughter of former secret agent Mike Muggins (Chris Potter), who tries to rescue her with the help of a spy monkey. Grand Champion had a brief theatrical release in August 2004, while Spymate was not released until February 2006, when it was given a theatrical run in Canada, followed by its DVD release in April 2006. In August 2003, Roberts was scheduled to shoot an independent film called Daisy Winters, starring as the title character, alongside Rachel Weisz. However, the film, which would have been Roberts' first leading role, never began shooting due to financial problems.
Roberts became a teen idol at the age of thirteen, starring as the lead character Addie Singer in the Nickelodeon series Unfabulous, which debuted in September 2004. While Nickelodeon had wanted to cast her for the role from the beginning, series creator Sue Rose was not convinced of her acting ability until she saw Roberts auditioning for the role, singing a song and playing along on the guitar. The teen sitcom earned Roberts a Teen Choice Award nomination and several Young Artist Award nominations. The series became one of the network's most-watched programs and was quickly recommissioned for a second season.
As her character on Unfabulous writes songs and plays guitar, Nickelodeon soon considered a career in music for Roberts as well, following the lead of other actress/pop singers such as Hilary Duff and Lindsay Lohan. Roberts first contributed the song "If I Had It My Way" to the soundtrack of Disney's 2005 film Ice Princess. This was followed by her debut album, Unfabulous and More: Emma Roberts, which was released on September 27, 2005 and is featured as the soundtrack to Unfabulous. The album peaked at #46 on the Billboard's Top Heatseekers, and two music videos were released simultaneous to promote the album: "I Wanna Be" and "Dummy".
In 2006, Roberts returned to the big screen, starring alongside Sara Paxton and singer JoJo in Aquamarine. The film about two teenagers (played by Roberts and JoJo) who find a mermaid (Paxton) in their swimming pool, earned Roberts a 2007 Young Artist Award for Best Supporting Young Actress in a Feature Film. Roberts also contributed a cover version of Weezer's 2001 single "Island in the Sun" to the film's soundtrack. Following Aquamarine, she was scheduled to star in Camp Couture (produced by her mother, Kelly Cunningham) and Bras and Broomsticks (based on the book of the same name by Sarah Mlynowski), but neither film went into full production.
On May 15, 2006 Roberts was featured on MTV's Punk'd with pop singer Teddy Geiger. In 2006, Roberts also became a spokesmodel for Dooney & Bourke, and designed her own Dooney & Bourke handbag, named after her.
In early 2006, Roberts finished shooting Nancy Drew, in which she stars in the title role of teen detective Nancy Drew. It was released on June 15, 2007.
As of August 2007, Roberts is shooting Wild Child, about a rebellious teen from Malibu sent to an English boarding school, in London. The film is scheduled to be released on April 4, 2008. Following Wild Child, Roberts next movie is Hotel for Dogs, based on the novel by Lois Duncan.
Roberts is also set to be reunited with Nancy Drew director Andrew Fleming on both Rodeo Gal and a Nancy Drew sequel, although the latter one has been put on hold. She may play the daughter of her aunt Julia Roberts' character in the movie Friday Night Knitting Club.
As of early March, Emma has been filming the indie movie Lymelife with Alec Baldwin in New Jersey, with a tentative release date of January 2009.
She will voice Sally Maplewood in the holiday spin-off of Rugrats called Reptar versus the Snow Serpents which will be either a made-for-TV movie or a DVD movie.
See also: Actress, American
