Emma Rose Roberts (born February 10, 1991) is an American actress and pop singer.
Emma Roberts was born in Rhinebeck, New York, the daughter of actor Eric Roberts and his (now ex) girlfriend Kelly Cunningham.
Her 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 mom and stepdad and [she doesn't] see real father much".. She is the niece of Julia Roberts. Emma has two cousins in Wales who she often goes and meets. She also has a sister called Kerri Fox.
During her childhood, Roberts spent a lot of time on the sets of the films in which her aunt, Julia Roberts was starring. 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 wanted 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 would not allow Roberts to see it before she turns eighteen. Director Ted Demme produced a tape for her that featured only the scenes she appeared in. During her burgeoning career, Roberts attended the Archer School for Girls, in Los Angeles, California. 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. 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 series became one of the network's most-watched programs and was quickly recommissioned for a second season.
Because 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 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. They became good friends while filming.
On May 15, 2006 Roberts was featured on MTV's Punk'd with pop singer Teddy Geiger. In 2006, Roberts became a spokesmodel for Dooney & Bourke, and designed her own Dooney & Bourke handbag, named after her, the "Emma Bag."
In early 2006, Roberts finished shooting her titular role in Nancy Drew. It was released on June 15, 2007. Roberts is also currently working on the Japanese/American film Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac which is set to be released in Japan in 2009, and in the US in 2010.