Bio
Emmy Rossum is an American actress and singer-songwriter best known for her film roles as Katie Markum in Mystic River, as Laura Chapman in The Day After Tomorrow and as Christine in Phantom of the Opera, for which she was nominated for a Golden Globe award.
She currently stars as Fiona Gallagher in the comedy-drama television series Shameless, since 2011.
Rossum was born in New York City to a Jewish American family. Her father is a banker and her mother is a corporate photographer. Her parents divorced when she was three years old and Rossum has not remained close to her father.
Being born and raised in New York City provided Emmy with the perfect place to start her professional career.
After passing an audition at the Metropolitan Opera when she was 7 years old, she performed in over 20 operas in six different languages at Lincoln Center, alongside figures such as Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti.
She was directed by Franco Zeffirelli in Carmen. She left the opera when she entered her teenage years, as she had grown too tall to perform as a child.
Emmy also appeared in a Carnegie Hall presentation of The Damnation of Faust.
Rossum's acting performance in SOngcatcher earned her an Independent Spirit Award nomination in the category of Best Debut Performance.
Four years later in 2004, her starring performance as Christine in The Phantom of the Opera earned her a Golden Globe Award nomination, as well as the National Board of Review's Best Female Breakthrough Performance Award and the Broadcast Film Critics Association's Best Young Actress Award in 2005.
In film, Rossum starred as Alexa in the indie-drama Dare, starring opposite actor Zach Gilford. The film premiered in official competition at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival and was released theatrically in November 2009.
Other past film credits include Dragonball, Poseidon, The Day After Tomorrow with Jake Gyllenhaal, and the Clint Eastwood directed drama Mystic River. Her television credits include guest starring appearances on Law & Order and The Practice.
In 2007, Rossum recorded her first album for Geffen records, Inside Out, which showcased her classically trained voice as the primary instrument. She wrote and recorded all her own songs.
Rossum began her theatrical career at the age of seven when she began singing the children's roles at the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center. Between the ages of seven and twelve she was trained there in stagecraft and classical vocal technique and performed in five languages in 20 different operas.
Rossum is the Youth Ambassador for the international organization Youth AIDS, which works to educate young people in sixty countries on the prevention and treatment of AIDS. She travels internationally raising awareness of the pandemic by speaking at schools, universities and government forums.
Rossum was born in New York City in 1986 and attended the Spence School until 1996. She earned her high school degree through Stanford University's Education Program for Gifted Youth (EPGY) and Northwestern University's Center for Talent Development (CTD).
Rossum was married to music executive Justin Siegel for a year and a half before he filed for divorce on September 25, 2009.
Rossum began dating Counting Crows frontman Adam Duritz after touring with the band in the summer of 2009. They broke up in September 2010.
Emmy has appeared in 20 different operas singing in five languages.
In preparation for her role in The Phantom of the Opera , she attended a seance at the Spiritualist Association of Great Britian where a medium talked to her about her late grandmother.