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Emma Roberts Emma Rose Roberts is an American actress,
model and singer. She is the daughter of actor Eric Roberts and niece of Julia Roberts. Roberts
became known for her role as Addie Singer in the Nickelodeon television series Unfabulous.
She released her debut album, which also served as the show's soundtrack, Unfabulous and More.
Roberts then began to focus on her acting career, starring in the film Aquamarine and
later as the title character in the 2007 film Nancy Drew. Looking for more mature roles,
Roberts appeared in the 2009 drama Lymelife and went on to several more films, often in
leading roles. She was part of the acting ensemble with her aunt Julia Roberts in the
2010 film Valentine's Day. In 2013, she took on the role of Madison Montgomery in American
Horror Story: Coven, the third season of American Horror Story.
Early life Roberts was born in Rhinebeck, New York. She
is the daughter of actor Eric Roberts and Kelly Cunningham. She is the stepdaughter
of Eliza Roberts and Kelly Nickels, and the niece of actresses Julia Roberts and Lisa
Roberts Gillan. She has a half sister, Grace Nickels.
Acting career 2001–05: Early career and Unfabulous
During her childhood, Roberts spent time on the sets of her aunt Julia Roberts' films.
These experiences sparked a desire in Emma, from the age of five, to follow her father
and aunts into the film industry. Although her mother initially wanted her to have a
normal childhood, Roberts made her acting debut at age nine in Ted Demme's 2001 drama
Blow. It was the first film for which she ever auditioned. In the film, she portrayed
Kristina Jung, the daughter of Johnny Depp's character, *** smuggler George Jung. In
2001, Roberts also had a role in Leif Tilden's 10-minute short bigLove, and was an uncredited
extra in some scenes featuring her aunt Julia Roberts 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's first leading
role, never began shooting due to financial problems. In 2004, Roberts became a teen idol
starring as the lead character Addie Singer in the Nickelodeon series Unfabulous, which
debuted in September 2004. Nickelodeon had wanted to cast her for the role from the beginning,
and the teen sitcom earned Roberts a Teen Choice Award nomination and several Young
Artist Award nominations. The show aired for three seasons from 2004 to 2007 and aired
42 episodes; the third season ended on December 16, 2007.
The television series focused on Addie Singer (Roberts) a seventh grader whose life is "unfabulous"
and she writes songs about her life. The television series had had various TV movies which include:
The Perfect Moment which premiered on Nickelodeon on October 6, 2006. In 2004, Roberts guest-starred
in an episode of the Nickelodeon series Drake and Josh, Roberts was in the episode "Honor
Council". Because her character on Unfabulous writes songs and plays guitar, Nickelodeon
soon considered a career in music for Roberts. 2006–12: Theatrical films
In 2006, Roberts returned to the big screen, starring alongside Sara Paxton and singer
JoJo in Aquamarine. Roberts won a 2007 Young Artist Award for Best Supporting Young Actress
in a Feature Film for her role in the film. The film Aquamarine took 5th place at the
box office on its opening weekend making $8 million. In early 2006, Roberts finished shooting her
title role in Nancy Drew. The film was released to theaters on June 15, 2007, and grossed
over $7 million in its opening weekend, though the film was not well received by critics.
Roberts was set to reunite with Nancy Drew director Andrew Fleming on both Rodeo Gal
and a Nancy Drew sequel, in 2007, but these films were never made.
In 2008, Roberts had her voiceover debut when she voiced the English version of the character
Wilma in the CGI-animated family film The Flight Before Christmas.
In 2009, Roberts starred alongside Jake T. Austin in Hotel for Dogs, based on the novel
by Lois Duncan. The film premiered on January 15, 2009, and was released to theaters on
January 16, 2009, and took No.5 place in its opening weekend with over $17 million. The
film has to-date grossed over $114 million, and received generally mixed reviews from
critics. Roberts starred as the lead in the film Wild Child, about a rebellious teen from
Malibu sent to a boarding school in England. Roberts described her character as "pretty
much your typical spoiled-brat Malibu socialite who gets shipped off to British boarding school."
Roberts also appeared in the indie film Lymelife with Alec Baldwin, which was premiered at
the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival. Roberts said that Lymelife is “kind of like
American Beauty meets The Ice Storm”, and that her reasoning for doing the film was
that, "Some people look at me and think, She's just Julia Roberts's niece. So I wanted to
do something smaller and edgier, something that would show I really am an actress."
In 2010, Roberts co-starred as Grace in the film Valentine's Day in which her aunt, Julia
Roberts also appeared (although they were never together on screen). Also in 2010, Roberts
was in Twelve and It's Kind of a Funny Story. In 2011, She co-starred in the film adaptation
of Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, as well as A Great Education. She also starred alongside
with Freddie Highmore in 2011's romantic comedy The Art of Getting By. Roberts received played
the role of Jill Roberts in the Wes Craven film Scream 4. The film opened in theaters
April 15, 2011. She also appeared on "Take Two With Phineas and Ferb".
In February 2012, Roberts began filming a new movie in Syracuse, NY called Adult World.
The film also takes place in Syracuse and will co-star John Cusack. Roberts plays a
recent college graduate who works at an adult bookstore to make ends meet. Roberts appears
in a supporting role in Dustin Lance Black's Virginia, which will receive a limited theatrical
release in May 2012 after a two and a half year delay. Roberts appeared in the August
2012 film Celeste and Jesse Forever, parodying pop stars such as Kesha with her performance
as Riley Banks, an incurious blonde singer. Roberts said in an interview that her role
as Banks tempted her to write an album of songs using her character as an alter ego.
2013–present: Return to television On February 7, 2013, The Hollywood Reporter
confirmed that Roberts was cast to star a pilot for Fox called Delirium, based on the
Lauren Oliver novels. Roberts would have portrayed Lena Haloway, the protagonist, but Fox decided
not to pick up the show. Roberts starred in the comedy film We're the Millers alongside
Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis. It was released on August 7, 2013. The film received
mixed reviews from critics and was a financial success grossing over $269 million against
a budget of $37 million. She next appeared in the third season of the horror anthology
series American Horror Story in late-2013 through 2014. Roberts portrayed a self-involved
party girl named Madison Montgomery, who also happens to be a telekinetic witch.
Music career In 2005, Roberts had a debut album Unfabulous
and More. The album was released on September 27, 2005, through Columbia Records and Nick
Records. It also served as the soundtrack to the television series, Unfabulous, in which
Roberts stars. The album peaked at No. 46 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart. In September
2005, two promotional singles were released from the album—"I Wanna Be" and "Dummy."
The album includes several original songs (among them "Dummy" and "I Wanna Be," both
of which were also released as music videos, "I Have Arrived" and "This Is Me," which was
co-written by Roberts), as well as some of Addie's songs from the first season, including
"Punch Rocker" and "New Shoes" (both from the episode "The Party"), "94 Weeks (Metal
Mouth Freak)" (from "The Bar Mitzvah") and "Mexican Wrestler" (which had previously appeared
on Jill Sobule's 2000 album Pink Pearl and in the episode "The 66th Day" from Unfabulous).
During the same year, Roberts recorded "If I Had It My Way" for the soundtrack of the
2005 Disney film Ice Princess. In 2006, Roberts covered the song "Island in the Sun", which
was originally recorded by Weezer in 2001; she recorded the song for the Aquamarine's
soundtrack, a film where she starred as one of the leads.
Roberts said in a 2007 interview, "Right now I am focusing on movies. I am getting ready
to start a new movie this summer so that is taking a lot of my time. I think when I am
a little bit older it is definitely something I’d like to pursue." In another interview,
she said, "My musical career is indefinitely on hold. I don't like people who become like
'actor slash singer.' I think people should be one or the other because usually you're
not going to be great at both. You're going to better at one, so you might as well stick
to the one you're good at. I'm going for acting." Spokesmodel
In February 2009, she was named the brand ambassador for Neutrogena, appearing in print
and television ads for the company. Roberts has also appeared multiple times as part of
Teen Vogue’s Best Dressed list, including June 2007, September 2008, December 2008 and
February 2009. Personal life
In April 2011, Roberts began dating Glee star Chord Overstreet; they had a difficult relationship
and were broken up by January 2012. That September, Roberts began attending Sarah Lawrence College.
In January 2012, Roberts left school to concentrate on work commitments.
Roberts began dating actor Evan Peters in mid-2012. On July 7, 2013, Roberts was arrested
for domestic violence against Peters in Montreal, Quebec. Someone at the couple's hotel overheard
a dispute coming from their room and called police, who arrived to find Peters with a
bloody nose and several bite marks. Roberts was released several hours after her arrest
when Peters declined to press charges. In a joint statement, Roberts and Peters called
it "an unfortunate incident and misunderstanding," and stated that they "are working together
to move past it." Media reports on January 6, 2014 said they had become engaged over
the holidays. Discography
Other appearances Awards