Emmanuelle Grey Rossum was born on September 12th, 1986 in New York. She is an only child. Emmy grew up in Manhattan and started singing at the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center at age 6 with the likes of Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. Over the course of five years, she sang in five different languages in over twenty different operas, including La Boheme, Turandot, a Carnegie Hall presentation of The Damnation of Faust and A Midsummer Night's Dream and had the pleasure of working under the direction of Franco Zefferelli in Carmen.

As she matured, she grew out of children’s costumes at the Metropolitan Opera and decided to pursue acting. She signed up with an agent and began auditioning for acting roles. In 1997, she made her television debut with a recurring role in the long-running daytime soap As the World Turns. Later that year, she guest-starred on Law & Order and the following year, appeared in two movies and a mini-series. Rossum received a Young Artist Award nomination in 1999 for Best Performance in a TV Movie for her work in the TV movie Genius, followed by the role of the young Audrey Hepburn in the ABC TV movie The Audrey Hepburn Story (2000).

Emmy made her big screen debut as the Appalachian orphan Deladis in Songcatcher, which debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, winning the Special Jury Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance. Emmy also received an Independent Spirit Award nomination in the category of Best Debut Performance and sings a duet with Dolly Parton on the Songcatcher soundtrack.

She then could be seen in a major Hollywood movie in a supporting role opposite Sean Penn in the Clint Eastwood directed "Mystic River", the Roland Emmerich eco-disaster film "The Day After Tomorrow" opposite Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal. But her big breakthrough came when she got the role as Christine Da’ in the world-famous Andrew Lloyd Webber screen adaptation of his musical "The Phantom Of The Opera". After an international search for talent, she was chosen for her lyric soprano voice and excellent acting to play the young opera singer who becomes the object of the phantom's obsession. This role got her a Golden Globe nomination and many other awards.

Emmy also worked on the Wolfgang Peterson movie Poseidon (2006).

Filmography

• Poseidon (2006)
• The Phantom of the Opera (2004)
• The Day After Tomorrow (2004)
• Mystic River (2003)
• Nola (2003)
• Passionada (2002)
• "The Practice" (1 episode, 2001)
• Happy Now (2001)
• An American Rhapsody (2001)
• The Audrey Hepburn Story (2000)
• It Had to Be You (2000)
• Songcatcher (2000)
• "As the World Turns" (1956)
• "Snoops" (2 episodes, 1999)
• Genius (1999)
• Grace & Glorie (1998)
• "A Will of Their Own" (1998)
• Only Love (1998)
• "Law & Order" (1 episode, 1997)

Awards

• Broadcast Film Critics Association Award Best Young Actress "The Phantom of the Opera" 2004
• National Board of Review Breakthrough Performance Actress "The Phantom of the Opera" 2004