Aselole Blog: Emma Roberts

Emma Rose Roberts (born

February 10, 1991) is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of actor Eric Roberts and niece of Julia Roberts. Roberts became known for her role as Addie Singer in the Nickelodeon television series Unfabulous. She released her debut album, which also served as the show's soundtrack Unfabulous and More. Roberts then pursued a solo singing career by recording two songs for the soundtracks of Ice Princess and Aquamarine (in which Roberts starred as one of the leads). Roberts then began to focus on her acting career, the title character in the 2007 film Nancy Drew, and her voice-over debut in The Flight Before Christmas. In 2008 and 2009, Roberts was cast in the coming-of-age movies Wild Child, Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac and Lymelife. Roberts appeared in the 2009 family film Hotel for Dogs and The Winning Season. In 2010, she appeared in Valentine's Day, which also starred Julia Roberts. Later the same year, she had a leading role in It's Kind of a Funny Story. She is now starring in the popular horror series sequel, Scream 4, along with Neve Campbell, Courteney Cox and David Arquette. During her childhood, Roberts spent time on the sets of her aunt Julia Roberts's films. These experiences sparked a desire in Emma, from the age of five, to follow her father and aunts into the film industry. Although her mother initially wanted her to have a normal childhood, Roberts made her acting debut at age nine in Ted Demme's 2001 drama Blow. It was the first film for which she ever auditioned.[citation needed] In the film, she portrayed Kristina Jung, the daughter of Johnny Depp's character, cocaine smuggler George Jung. In 2001, Roberts 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. 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 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 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, never began shooting due to financial problems. In 2004, Roberts became a teen idol at the age of 13, starring as the lead character Addie Singer in the Nickelodeon series Unfabulous, which debuted in September 2004. Nickelodeon had wanted to cast her for the role from the beginning, and the teen sitcom earned Roberts a Teen Choice Award nomination and several Young Artist Award nominations. The show aired for three seasons from 2004–2007 and aired 42 episodes; the third season ended on December 16, 2007.

In 2006, Roberts returned to the big screen, starring alongside Sara Paxton and singer JoJo in Aquamarine. Roberts 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 #5 place at the box office on 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. In December 2007, Roberts began filming Hotel For Dogs. In 2008, Roberts 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 2005, Roberts had a debut album 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 stars. The album peaked at #46 on Billboard's 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). Heather Phares from Allmusic praised her "fresh" and "genuine voice", and also claimed that the album was "filled with, sweet idealistic songs sung by a young girl who sounds like a young girl instead of a pop tart". 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's soundtrack, a film where 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 better at one, so you might as well stick to the one you’re good at. I’m going for acting."