Emma Roberts

• 1. Introduction

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  Emma Roberts was nine years old when she auditioned for the first time, and the part she won was in Blow, a 2001 crime film directed by Ted Demme. She played Kristina Jung, the daughter of the characters portrayed by Johnny Depp and Penelope Cruz. Jaime King played the older version of the girl. It was the first film Roberts ever tried out for, and she got it. Today she is an American actress, singer and producer, and her horror and thriller work has earned her the label of scream queen. How does a child from a famous acting family become a teen idol, then a horror regular, then a producer who also runs a book club? The answers pass through a sitcom, a short-lived pop career, and an appetite for stories on the page.

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• 2. A Family of Actors

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  Rhinebeck, New York, is where Emma Rose Roberts was born on the 10th of February 1991. Her mother is Kelly Cunningham and her father is the actor Eric Roberts. The two divorced when she was seven months old. Both parents later remarried, which made her the stepdaughter of Eliza Roberts on one side and of the musician Kelly Nickels on the other. She also has a younger maternal half-sister named Grace.

  Betty Lou Bredemus, her paternal grandmother, worked as an acting coach, so performance was a family trade long before Emma arrived. Her aunts include the actresses Julia Roberts and Lisa Roberts Gillan. Through her father's marriage, she is also the step-granddaughter of David Rayfiel and Lila Garrett.

  Time on the sets of her aunt Julia's films shaped her ambitions as a child. Watching those productions made her want to follow her father and aunts into the business. Her mother, however, had hoped she would have an ordinary childhood.

  The pull of the industry won out in 2001. That year she appeared in a ten-minute short called bigLove, and she was an uncredited extra in America's Sweethearts, in scenes with her aunt Julia.

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• 3. Life as Addie Singer

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  In September 2004, Nickelodeon premiered Unfabulous, a sitcom built around a seventh grader named Addie Singer and her two best friends. Roberts played Addie. The show ran for three seasons, from 2004 to 2007, and brought her several Teen Choice Award and Young Artist Award nominations. It also spun off a number of television films, among them The Perfect Moment. Also in 2004, at age 13, she guest starred on another Nickelodeon series, Drake & Josh, in an episode called "Honor Council."

  The network then considered launching her as a singer. On the 27th of September 2005, Columbia Records and Nick Records released Unfabulous and More, her debut album, which doubled as the show's soundtrack. It reached number 46 on the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart and number 10 on the Kid Albums chart.

  Two singles, "I Wanna Be" and "Dummy," arrived that September, and each received a music video. Roberts co-wrote the track "This Is Me." The record also gathered songs Addie sang in the first season, including "Punch Rocker," "New Shoes" and "94 Weeks (Metal Mouth Freak)." Another of those songs, "Mexican Wrestler," had already appeared on Jill Sobule's 2000 album Pink Pearl.

  Soundtrack work continued. In 2005 she recorded "If I Had It My Way" for Disney's Ice Princess. In 2006 she covered Weezer's 2001 song "Island in the Sun" for a film she starred in.

  By 2007, though, she was telling interviewers: "My musical career is indefinitely on hold." She added: "I'm going for acting."

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• 4. Teen Idol Years

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  Grand Champion, released in 2002, gave Roberts a small part as the sister of the main character Buddy, played by Jacob Fisher. It had only a brief theatrical release, in August 2004. Spymate followed in 2006, with Roberts as the daughter of former secret agent Mike Muggins, played by Chris Potter. He tries to rescue her with the help of a spy monkey. The film played in Canadian theaters in February 2006 and reached DVD in April of that year.

  Aquamarine, also from 2006, put her among the leads alongside Sara Paxton and the singer JoJo. It opened in fifth place at the box office with $8 million. Her performance won her the 2007 Young Artist Award for Best Supporting Young Actress in a Feature Film.

  On the 15th of June 2007, Nancy Drew reached theaters with Roberts in the title role. It earned over $7 million in its opening weekend, but critics were unkind. She was due to reunite with its director, Andrew Fleming, on Rodeo Gal and a Nancy Drew sequel. Neither project was ever made.

  In 2008, Roberts led Wild Child, about a rebellious teenager from Malibu, California, who is sent to a boarding school in England. She described the character as "pretty much your typical spoiled-brat Malibu socialite who gets shipped off to a British boarding school." That year she also made her voiceover debut as the English-language Wilma in The Flight Before Christmas. Lymelife, another 2008 film, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival.

  Hotel for Dogs, with Jake T. Austin, premiered in January 2009 and opened in fifth place with over $17 million. Reviews were mixed, yet the film has grossed more than $114 million to date. She also played Abbie Miller in The Winning Season that year.

  In 2010 she played Grace in Valentine's Day, a film that also featured her aunt Julia, though the two never shared a scene. Her other 2010 titles included Twelve, Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, 4.3.2.1., It's Kind of a Funny Story and Virginia. A very different kind of role was waiting for her the following year.

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• 5. Scream Queen

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  Wes Craven's Scream 4, released in 2011, cast Roberts as Jill Roberts, and it opened her horror career. The genre kept pulling her back.

  In late 2013, she joined the third season of the FX anthology series American Horror Story, subtitled Coven. She played Madison Montgomery, a self-involved party girl who also happens to be a telekinetic witch. She stayed in a main role through January 2014. In the following season, Freak Show, she played Maggie Esmerelda, a con artist posing as a fortune teller.

  Scream Queens, on Fox in 2015-2016, gave her the lead as Chanel Oberlin, opposite Jamie Lee Curtis and Lea Michele. Ryan Murphy and Brad Falchuk, producers of American Horror Story, created it with Ian Brennan, a producer of Glee. Fox canceled it after two seasons.

  The film The Blackcoat's Daughter, also known by its original title February, paired her with Kiernan Shipka. Osgood Perkins directed it, and it premiered at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival.

  In 2017, she returned to American Horror Story as the newscast reporter Serena Belinda in the Cult episode "11/9." For the crossover season Apocalypse, she came back as Madison Montgomery and rejoined the main cast. From September through November 2019 she starred in the ninth season, 1984, as Brooke Thompson. That season has been described as heavily influenced by slasher classics such as Friday the 13th and Halloween.

  The 2020 thriller The Hunt, which drew controversy, added to the list. Her latest entry in the franchise, in 2023-2024, was American Horror Story: Delicate, where she played Anna Victoria Alcott.

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• 6. Beyond Teen Roles

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  Freddie Highmore was her co-star in The Art of Getting By, the 2011 romantic comedy that began her push toward more grown-up parts. In 2012's Celeste and Jesse Forever, she played Riley Banks, an incurious blonde singer who parodies pop stars such as Kesha. Roberts said the role tempted her to write an album with the character as her alter ego.

  On the 7th of February 2013, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that she would star in Delirium, a Fox pilot based on Lauren Oliver's novels. She played the protagonist, Lena Haloway. Fox passed on the series, and Hulu streamed the pilot for a limited time beginning on the 20th of June 2014.

  Adult World, released on the 18th of April 2013, teamed her with John Cusack and Evan Peters. She played a recent college graduate who takes a job at a sex shop to pay the bills. Roberts has said most of her lines were ad-libbed, so her reactions were genuine. Andrew O'Hehir of Salon and Stephanie Zacharek of The Village Voice praised the performance, and the praise included the phrase "both breezy and carefully tuned."

  The next month she voiced Amanda Barrington on Family Guy, in the episode "No Country Club for Old Men." We're the Millers followed on the 3rd of August 2013, with Jennifer Aniston and Jason Sudeikis. Critics gave it mixed reviews, but it grossed over $269 million against a $37 million budget.

  Gia Coppola's directorial debut, Palo Alto, reached theaters on the 29th of August 2013. It was based on a short story collection by James Franco, and Roberts held the lead. Tom Shone of The Guardian and Ian Freer of Empire both called her the "standout." Freer wrote that she was "heartbreaking as she suggests longings and anxieties without over-hyping it. Much like the film itself."

  In 2015, she starred beside her Palo Alto co-star Nat Wolff in Ashby, which had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on the 19th of April. Nerve, with Dave Franco, premiered at the SVA Theater on the 12th of July 2016. It grossed $85 million worldwide against a $19 million budget. Who We Are Now, in which she played Jess, debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival on the 9th of September 2017.

  In March 2018, she was announced as the star of Anya's Ghost, adapted from Vera Brosgol's graphic novel published in 2011. From April to August 2018 she appeared in three films: In a Relationship, Billionaire Boys Club and Little Italy. On the 8th of October 2018, she joined the animated musical UglyDolls as Wedgehead, and it was released on the 3rd of May 2019. She left the Netflix series Spinning Out, where she had been cast as Kat Baker, because of scheduling conflicts.

  Paradise Hills, with Roberts as Uma, premiered at Sundance on the 26th of January 2019. The romantic comedy Holidate arrived on the 28th of October 2020. In 2022, she was cast in Madame Web, a Sony Spider-Man Universe film released in 2024. She also voiced Sasha Nutwagon in the stop-motion film Saurus City, which debuted at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival.

  More work is lined up. In 2024, she was set to star in the thriller Fourth Wall, and in early 2025 she joined the comedy Old Pals with Henry Winkler, Evan Rachel Wood and Brian Cox. The thriller The Technique, from Brian McGreevy, would put her with Noomi Rapace, Ben Platt and Laura Harrier. In August 2025, she signed on for A Murder Uncorked, a rom-com murder mystery.

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• 7. Behind the Camera

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  In September 2020, Hulu signed Roberts to a first-look television deal. Her production company, Belletrist TV, focuses on adapting books for the screen. She spoke about that interest in a March 2022 interview for the cover of Tatler, while describing her move into production.

  Her first credit as an executive producer was Tell Me Lies, adapted from Carola Lovering's novel, which premiered in September 2022. In October 2021, she had been set to star in and produce the thriller Abandoned, with John Gallagher Jr. and Michael Shannon. In 2024, she produced and starred in Space Cadet, a romantic comedy released on Prime Video.

  Later in 2024, Belletrist teamed with Marci Klein to develop a series from Candace Bushnell's novel One Fifth Avenue. Roberts also reunited with her American Horror Story: Delicate co-star Kim Kardashian to produce Calabasas. That series is based on Via Blednar's novel If You Lived Here You'd Be Famous By Now.

  Belletrist began in March 2017 as a book club on Instagram. Roberts founded it that year with her friend Karah Preiss, aiming to build a community where women feel confident and to encourage more reading. The first pick was Joan Didion's South and West. Each month brings a new book, along with some interaction with its author, such as a video or an interview.

  The list mixes established and emerging writers. Roberts has recommended Octavia E. Butler's Fledgling, Lisa Taddeo's Animal and Ariel Levy's The Rules Do Not Apply. Other picks include Andrew Sean Greer's The Impossible Lives of Greta Wells, Eileen Myles's Chelsea Girls and Leopoldine Core's When Watched.

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• 8. Beyond the Screen

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  In February 2009, Neutrogena named Roberts its brand ambassador, and she appeared in its print and television advertisements. Teen Vogue placed her on its Best Dressed list several times, in June 2007, September 2008, December 2008 and February 2009. In January 2021, she honored her aunt Julia as the new ambassador of the Pretty Woman collection from the French jewelry firm Fred.

  Her charity work centers on children's welfare, the environment, women's rights and public health. She supports the Children's Cancer Research Fund and often takes part in fundraisers for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital. In 2017 she hosted the L.A. Art Show, with proceeds going to St. Jude, and she attended the 2018 edition. In November 2023, she led a celebrity unboxing segment at St. Jude's Giving Tuesday event. She also works with Girls Inc., and a Thanksgiving Day 2023 campaign with Free People Movement pledged all net proceeds to that group.

  In June 2016, the Human Rights Campaign released a video honoring the victims of the Orlando nightclub shooting. Roberts was among those who told the stories of the people who were killed.

  Sarah Lawrence College enrolled her in September 2011, but by January 2012 she had paused her studies to concentrate on work.

  A 2023 episode of Finding Your Roots, featuring her aunt Julia, revealed that the biological paternal great-great-great-grandfather in her line had the surname Mitchell, not Roberts. Through her father she has English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, German and Swedish roots. She is also a distant relative of the actor Edward Norton.

  She began dating the actor Evan Peters in 2012, after they met on the set of Adult World. They separated and reconciled several times and got engaged in March 2014. A second split reportedly came in May 2016, and after reuniting they ended the relationship for good in March 2019.

  That same month she started seeing the actor and musician Garrett Hedlund. In August 2020 the couple announced they were expecting, and that December she became the first pregnant celebrity on the cover of Cosmopolitan. Their son was born in Los Angeles on the 27th of December 2020, and Tim McGraw is his godfather. The pair split in January 2022.

  Roberts began dating the actor Cody John in August 2022. On the 16th of July 2024, she used Instagram to announce that the two were engaged.

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