Emma Roberts Biography

Emma Rose Roberts (born February 10, 1991) is an American actress and singer. After making her film debut as Kristina Jung in Blow (2001), Roberts gained recognition for her lead role as Addie Singer on the Nickelodeon television series Unfabulous (2004-07). She released her debut studio album, Unfabulous and More (2005), which also served as the series' soundtrack. Roberts then appeared in a series of film roles, including Nancy Drew (2007), Wild Child (2008), Hotel for Dogs (2009), Valentine's Day (2010), It's Kind of a Funny Story (2010), and The Art of Getting By (2011).

Looking for more mature roles, Roberts went on to obtain both supporting and lead roles in Lymelife (2009), 4.3.2.1. (2010), Scream 4 (2011), Adult World (2013), We're the Millers (2013), Palo Alto (2013) and The Blackcoat's Daughter (2015). She starred in the lead role of Chanel Oberlin on the Fox television series Scream Queens, as well as playing main roles in two seasons of American Horror Story.

Early life

Roberts was born in Rhinebeck, New York, to Kelly Cunningham and actor Eric Roberts. Her parents separated when she was a baby. Through her father's marriage, she is the stepdaughter of Eliza Roberts. Through her mother's marriage, she is the stepdaughter of musician Kelly Nickels. She has a maternal half-sister, Grace. Her paternal grandmother was acting coach Betty Lou Bredemus (1934-2015), and her aunts are actresses Julia Roberts and Lisa Roberts Gillan. During her childhood, Roberts spent time on the sets of her aunt Julia's films. These experiences sparked a desire to follow her father and aunts into the film industry. Her mother initially wanted her to have a normal childhood.

Acting career

2001-2007: Breakthrough with Unfabulous

Roberts made her acting debut at age nine in Ted Demme's 2001 drama film 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 (cocaine smuggler George Jung). That year, she 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. Roberts 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 2004, she began starring as the lead character Addie Singer in the Nickelodeon series Unfabulous, which debuted in September of that year. The sitcom earned Roberts a Teen Choice Award nomination and several Young Artist Award nominations. The series focused on a seventh grader, Addie, and her two best friends. It aired for three seasons (2004-07). The show also spawned TV movies, including The Perfect Moment. Also in 2004, Roberts guest-starred in an episode of the Nickelodeon series Drake & Josh titled "Honor Council". After her run on Unfabulous, Nickelodeon had considered giving Roberts a kick start into a music career. In 2006, Roberts returned to the big screen, starring alongside Sara Paxton and singer JoJo in Aquamarine. She 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 fifth place at the box office in 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.

2008-2012: Film work

In 2008, she 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 in January 2009, and took fifth 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, California 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 a British boarding school." Roberts also appeared in the independent film Lymelife with Alec Baldwin, which was premiered at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival.

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. She also appeared that year in Twelve and It's Kind of a Funny Story. The following year, she co-starred in the film adaptation of Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac. She also starred alongside Freddie Highmore in the romantic comedy The Art of Getting By. In 2011, she played the role of Jill Roberts in the Wes Craven film Scream 4.

In 2013, Roberts co-starred with John Cusack and Evan Peters in Adult World. Roberts played a recent college graduate who works at an adult bookstore to make ends meet. She has said that most of her lines were ad-libbed so her reactions in the film were completely genuine. Her performance was praised by both Andrew O'Hehir of Salon and Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice, who praised Roberts' performance as "both breezy and carefully tuned". Roberts appears in a supporting role in Dustin Lance Black's Virginia, which received a limited theatrical release in May 2012 after a two and a half year delay. She next appeared in the 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: American Horror Story and Scream Queens

On February 7, 2013, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Roberts had been cast to star in a pilot for Fox called Delirium, based on the Lauren Oliver novels. She portrayed Lena Haloway, the protagonist, but Fox decided not to pick up the show. Roberts then 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 season three of the FX horror anthology series American Horror Story, called American Horror Story: Coven, from late 2013 through January 2014. Roberts portrayed a self-involved party girl named Madison Montgomery, who also happens to be a telekinetic witch. She then portrayed Maggie Esmerelda, a con artist posing as a fortune teller, in the season four, called American Horror Story: Freak Show.

Roberts played the lead role in Gia Coppola's directorial debut, Palo Alto, based on James Franco's short story collection of the same name. The film was released in May 2014 to generally positive reviews, with particular praise for Roberts' performance. Tom Shone of The Guardian and Ian Freer of Empire both called her the "standout" of the film, with Freer praising her performance for being "heartbreaking as she suggests longings and anxieties without over-hyping it. Much like the film itself." Roberts then starred alongside Palo Alto co-star Nat Wolff in Ashby, portraying the supporting role of Eloise. The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 19, 2015, and was released on September 25, in a limited release and through video on demand.

Roberts next appeared in the horror film The Blackcoat's Daughter (also known by its original titleFebruary) alongside Kiernan Shipka. Directed by Osgood Perkins, the film premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. Roberts plays the lead character Chanel Oberlin on the first season of Fox's horror comedy series Scream Queens, alongside Jamie Lee Curtis and Lea Michele. The series was created by American Horror Story producers Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, with Glee producer Ian Brennan. She reprised this role in the second season of Scream Queens the following year. It was later cancelled after two seasons. In 2016, Roberts starred alongside Dave Franco in Lionsgate's adaptation of the young-adult novel Nerve.

In June 2016, the Human Rights Campaign released a video in tribute to the victims of the 2016 Orlando gay nightclub shooting; in the video, Roberts and others told the stories of the people killed there.

On July 1, 2017,Ryan Murphyannounced Roberts' return toAmerican Horror Story, in its seventh season,Cult, via his personal Instagram account.

Music career

In 2005, Roberts released a debut album titled 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 starred. The album peaked at number 46 on Billboard 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 soundtrack, a film in which 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 be better at one, so you might as well stick to the one you're good at. I'm going for acting."

Personal life

In September 2011, Roberts began attending Sarah Lawrence College but by January 2012, she had put her studies on hold to concentrate on work commitments.

Roberts began dating actor Evan Peters in 2012 after they worked together on the film Adult World. In July 2013, while they were staying at a hotel in Montreal, Quebec, someone overheard a dispute coming from their room and called the police. After a "heated argument", they had begun hitting each other. When the police arrived, they arrested Roberts. Peters was not arrested because Roberts did not have any immediately visible injuries. Peters declined to press charges and Roberts was released several hours later. In a joint statement, the couple called it "an unfortunate incident and misunderstanding," and stated that they "are working together to move past it." Peters confirmed in March 2014 that he and Roberts were engaged. From March 2014, Peters and Roberts have been in an off/on again relationship, eventually leading to their breakup in late May 2016. In January 2017, Roberts confirmed she was engaged to Peters once again.

In February 2009, Roberts 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 Best Dressed list, including June 2007, September 2008, December 2008 and February 2009.

Filmography

Film

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2001	Blow	Kristina Sunshine Jung
2001	bigLove	Delilah	Short film
2001	America's Sweethearts	Girl in Purple T-shirt	Uncredited
2002	Grand Champion	Sister
2003	Spymate	Amelia Muggins
2006	Aquamarine	Claire Brown
2007	Nancy Drew	Nancy Drew
2008	The Flight Before Christmas	Wilma	Voice role
2008	Wild Child	Poppy Moore
2008	Lymelife	Adrianna Bragg
2009	Hotel for Dogs	Andi
2009	The Winning Season	Abbie
2010	Valentine's Day	Grace Smart
2010	Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac	Alice Leeds
2010	Twelve	Molly Norton
2010	4.3.2.1.	Joanne
2010	It's Kind of a Funny Story	Noelle
2010	Virginia	Jessie Tipton
2011	Scream 4	Jill Roberts
2011	The Art of Getting By	Sally Howe
2012	Celeste and Jesse Forever	Riley Banks
2013	Empire State	Nancy Michaelides
2013	We're the Millers	Casey Mathis / Casey Miller
2014	Adult World	Amy Anderson
2014	Palo Alto	April
2015	I Am Michael	Rebekah Fuller
2015	Ashby	Eloise
2015	The Blackcoat's Daughter	Joan Marsh
2016	Nerve	Venus "Vee" Delmonico
2017	Billionaire Boys Club	Sydney	In post-production
2017	Who We Are Now		In post-production

Television

Year	Title	Role	Notes
2004-2007	Unfabulous	Addie Singer	Main role; 41 episodes
2004	Drake & Josh	Addie Singer	Episode: "Honor Council"
2006, 2012	Punk'd	Herself	Guest star; 2 episodes
2007	'	Herself	Episode: "Young Hollywood"
2010	Jonas	Herself	Episode: "House Party"
2010	Take Two with Phineas and Ferb	Herself	Episode: "Emma Roberts"
2011	Extreme Makeover: Home Edition	Herself	Episode: "The Brown Family"
2013	Family Guy	Amanda Barrington (voice)	Episode: "No Country Club for Old Men"
2013-2014	American Horror Story: Coven	Madison Montgomery	Main role; 13 episodes
2014	Delirium	Lena Haloway	Unsold Fox pilot
2014-2015	American Horror Story: Freak Show	Maggie Esmerelda	Main role; 10 episodes
2015-2016	Scream Queens	Chanel Oberlin	Main role; 23 episodes
2017	American Horror Story: Cult	TBA	TBA

Discography

Soundtrack albums

List of albums, with selected chart positions

Title	Album details	Peak
		US Heat.
Unfabulous and More	Released: September 27, 2005 Formats: CD, digital download Label: Nick Records, Columbia, Sony	46
""?" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that country.

Singles

List of singles

Title	Year	Album
"I Wanna Be"	2005	Unfabulous and More
"Dummy"
"Santa Claus Is Coming to Town"

Other appearances

Title	Year	Album
"If I Had It My Way"	2005	Ice Princess
"Island in the Sun"	2006	Aquamarine
"Do It on My Face"	2012	Celeste and Jesse Forever

Music videos

List of music videos, showing director

Title	Year	Director	Artist	Notes
"I Wanna Be"	2005		Herself
"Dummy"			Herself
"Go Outside"	2011	Isaiah Seret	Cults	Guest appearance
"Testosterone"	2012	Petro	Haziq and the Giggles	Guest appearance

Awards and nominations

Year	Association	Category	Work	Result
2005	Young Artist Awards	Best Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama) - Leading Young Actress	Unfabulous
		Outstanding Young Performers in a TV Series
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV Breakout Performance - Female
	Kids' Choice Awards, Australia	Favorite Rising Star
	Radio Disney Music Awards	Best Actress Turned Singer	Herself
		Best TV Show Song	"Dummy" from Unfabulous
2006	Young Artist Awards	Best Young Ensemble Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama)	Unfabulous
2007		Best Performance in a Feature Film - Supporting Young Actress	Aquamarine
		Best Performance in a TV Series (Comedy or Drama) - Leading Young Actress	Unfabulous
	ShoWest	Female Star of Tomorrow	Herself
	Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite TV Actress	Unfabulous
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV Actress: Comedy
		Choice Movie: Female Breakout	Nancy Drew
		Choice Movie Actress: Comedy
	Kids' Choice Awards, Australia	Favorite Movie Star	Aquamarine
2008	Kids' Choice Awards	Favorite TV Actress	Unfabulous
	Young Artist Awards	Best Performance in a TV Series - Leading Young Actress
		Best Young Ensemble Performance in a TV Series
		Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actress	Nancy Drew
		Best Performance in a Feature Film - Young Ensemble Cast
	Kids' Choice Awards, Australia	Favorite Movie Star
2010	Young Artist Awards	Best Performance in a Feature Film - Leading Young Actress	Hotel for Dogs
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Summer Movie Star: Female	Twelve
2011		Choice Movie Actress: Romantic Comedy	The Art of Getting By
2014	MTV Movie Awards	Best Kiss (Shared with: Jennifer Aniston and Will Poulter)	We're the Millers
	Maui Film Festival	Shining Star Award	Herself
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice Movie Actress: Comedy	We're the Millers
		Choice Movie: Liplock (Shared with: Jennifer Aniston and Will Poulter)
		Candie's Style Icon	Herself
2016	People's Choice Awards	Favorite Actress In A New TV Series	Scream Queens
	Teen Choice Awards	Choice TV Actress: Comedy
2017		Choice TV Actress: Comedy