Emma Roberts has leading lady written all over her, and she's just entering
her teens! She was born into a family of stars so its no surprise she's becoming
one her self.
Roberts was born in Rhinebeck, New York to actor Eric Roberts and his then
girlfriend Kelly Cunningham, who broke up shortly after her birth and faced each
other in court over accusations of domestic violence. After Eric Roberts evicted
both Cunningham and his daughter (then seven months old) from his house in 1991,
his sister, actress Julia Roberts, bought them a house. She also sided with
Cunningham in the custody battle over Emma, resulting in a rift between her and
her brother for the years to come. While Eric Roberts lost the custody battle
and hardly saw his daughter while she was growing up, Julia Roberts became
friends with Cunningham and would often spend time with her niece. In early
2001, Emma Roberts' half-sister, Grace Nickels, the daughter of her mother and
her stepfather, former L.A. Guns bassist Kelly Nickels, was born. 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."
Since her natural father, Eric Roberts, got married to actress Eliza Simons (née
Eliza Garrett) in 1992, she also has a stepbrother, Keaton Simons, and a
stepsister, Morgan Simons, both children from Eliza Simons' first marriage with
James Simons.
Roberts, age 9, in her first role, as Kristina Jung in Blow. During her
childhood, Roberts spent a lot of time on the sets of the films that her aunt,
Julia Roberts, was starring in, and wanted to follow her father and aunt into
the movie business since she was five years old. Although her mother initially
opposed, wanting her 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 will not allow Roberts to see it before she turns
eighteen, but director Ted Demme made her a tape with her scenes.
In 2001, Roberts also had a role in Leif Tilden's 10-minute short film, bigLove
(which also starred her future step-father, 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 was not
released until August 2004, when it was given a brief theatrical release, while
Spymate was not released until February 2006, when it was given a theatrical run
in Canada. 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, got into
budget problems and was never shot.
Roberts as Addie Singer in Nickelodeon's Unfabulous. At age thirteen, Roberts
became a teen idol, starring as the lead character Addie Singer in the
Nickelodeon series Unfabulous, which debuted in September 2004. While
Nickelodeon wanted to cast her for the role from the beginning, series creator
Sue Rose was not convinced of her until she saw Roberts auditioning for the
role, singing a song and playing along on the guitar. The teen sitcom earned
Roberts a 2005 Teen Choice Award nomination and two nominations for the 2005
Young Artist Award. The series became one of the network's most-watched programs
and was quickly renewed for a second season.
As her character on Unfabulous writes songs and plays guitar, Nickelodeon soon
considered a career in music for Roberts, similar to other actresses/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. It was
followed by her debut album, Unfabulous and More: Emma Roberts, which was
released on September 27, 2005 and is also the Unfabulous soundtrack. The album
peaked at #46 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers.
In 2006, Roberts returned to the big screen, starring alongside Sara Paxton and
singer JoJo in Aquamarine, which was filmed in Australia. In the film, two
teenagers (played by Roberts and JoJo) find a mermaid (Paxton) in their swimming
pool. Roberts also contributed a cover version of Weezer's 2001 single "Island
in the Sun" to the film's soundtrack. Furthermore, Roberts will star as Nancy
Drew in 2007's Nancy Drew, which began shooting on January 31, 2006 and will hit
theaters June 15th, 2007.