Biography

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 se.

Roberts was born in Rhinebeck, New York to actor Eric Roberts and his then girriend 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' ha-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 BlowDuring 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 unedited 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 seet 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 eator 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 seen, 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.

courtesy: Wikipedia