Emmy Rossum

Emmanuelle Grey Rossum (born September 12, 1986) is an American actress, director, producer, singer, and songwriter.

Emmanuelle Grey Rossum was born on September 12, 1986, in New York City.

She is the only child of Cheryl Rossum, a single mother who worked as a corporate photographer.

Rossum's television debut was in August 1997, as the original Abigail Williams in the daytime soap opera As the World Turns.

She also had a guest role as Caroline Beels in Snoops.

Early on-screen roles included Genius (1999), Songcatcher (2000), Passionada (2002), and Nola (2003).

Rossum was nominated for a Young Artist Award in 1999 for Best Performance in a TV movie for her work in the Disney Channel Original Movie Genius.

She then portrayed a young Audrey Hepburn in the ABC television film The Audrey Hepburn Story (2000).

Rossum made her film debut at 13, in 2000's Songcatcher, as Deladis Slocumb, an Appalachian orphan.

Debuting at the Sundance Film Festival, the film won the Special Jury Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance.

For her role, Rossum received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Debut Performance and also had the opportunity to sing a duet with Dolly Parton on the Songcatcher soundtrack.

Variety magazine named Rossum as "One of the Ten to Watch" in 2000.

At sixteen, she was cast in her breakthrough role in Mystic River (2003).

In Nola (2003), Rossum played the title character, an aspiring songwriter.

In her first major studio film, Clint Eastwood's Mystic River (2003), Rossum starred as Katie Markum, the ill-fated daughter of small-business owner Jimmy Markum, played by Sean Penn.

Rossum starred in the 2004 sci-fi film The Day After Tomorrow, and also received critical acclaim for her performance in the leading role of Christine Daaé in the film adaptation of The Phantom of the Opera (2004).

Rossum had a breakthrough role as Laura Chapman in the sci-fi-disaster film The Day After Tomorrow (2004).

She later returned to New York, where she was the last to audition, in full costume and make-up, for the role of Christine Daaé in The Phantom of the Opera (2004), the onscreen adaptation of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical of the same name.

After having nearly missed the audition due to a family engagement, Rossum was asked to audition in person for Lloyd Webber at his home in New York.

For her performance, Rossum received a Golden Globe Award nomination for Best Actress in a musical or comedy.

She is also well known for acting in the films Poseidon (2006), Dragonball: Evolution (2009), Inside (2011), Beautiful Creatures (2013), Comet (2014), You're Not You (2014), and Cold Pursuit (2019).

In 2007, Rossum released her debut album, Inside Out.

She also released a Christmas EP the same year, titled Carol of the Bells.

Her parents separated while her mother was pregnant, and as of 2007, she had met her father only twice.

Rossum's mother is of Russian Jewish descent, and her father is Protestant of English and Dutch ancestry.

Rossum identifies as Jewish and has stated that her mother instilled in her the "Jewish code of ethics and morals".

She was named for her great-grandfather, whose first name was Emanuel, using the feminine spelling.

Upon singing "Happy Birthday" in all 12 keys, Rossum was welcomed to join the Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus by chorus director Elena Doria at age seven.

Over the course of five years she sang onstage with the chorus and had the chance to perform with singers such as Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti.

For anywhere from $5 to $10 a night, Rossum sang in six languages in 20 operas, including La bohème, Turandot, a Carnegie Hall presentation of La damnation de Faust, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

She also worked under the direction of Franco Zeffirelli in Carmen.

An increasing interest in pursuing acting led to taking classes with Flo Salant Greenberg of The New Actors Workshop in New York City.

She has also worked with acting coach Terry Knickerbocker.

Rossum attended the Spence School, a private school in Manhattan, before dropping out to pursue career opportunities.

She received her high school diploma at fifteen years old via online-extension courses offered by Stanford University's Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY).

She then enrolled at Columbia University, studying French, art history and philosophy.

Since the mid-2010s, she has directed and produced television, including the 2022 Peacock series Angelyne in which she also stars.

Born and raised in New York City, she began professionally performing as a child with the Metropolitan Opera.

She is best known for her portrayal of Fiona Gallagher in the television series Shameless (2011–2019).

In 2013, she released a follow-up album called Sentimental Journey.