Early life
Rossum was born in New York City to a wealthy Jewish American family. Her father is a banker, while her mother is a corporate photographer. Her parents divorced when she was three years old, and Rossum has not remained close to her father. At seven years old, Emmy made $5 a night at the Metropolitan Opera singing with the children's choir. According to her, "There were horses on stage that were getting $150." She was asked to sing Happy Birthday for her audition.
Rossum was enrolled at the private all-girl Spence School in Manhattan until administrators upset with her frequent absences due to her movie commitments delivered an ultimatum: either put more emphasis on schoolwork, or withdraw. She opted for the latter, and graduated from high school after completing "virtual classes" sponsored online by Stanford Northwestern Universities.
Career
Rossum appeared in a number of productions as a child in the 80-strong Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus, including Tchaikovsky's The Queen of Spades and the acclaimed Franco Zeffirelli-directed Carmen. She has sung with performers as diverse as tenor Plácido Domingo and country singer Dolly Parton. Her television appearances include Law & Order (1997), As the World Turns (1999), and The Practice (2001). She also portrayed the teenage Audrey Hepburn in the made-for-television biopic The Audrey Hepburn Story, starring Jennifer Love Hewitt (2000).
Rossum's films include Songcatcher and It Had to Be You (both in 2000), Mystic River (2003), The Day After Tomorrow and The Phantom of the Opera (in which she played the role of Christine Daae, opposite Gerard Butler and Patrick Wilson), both in 2004. Rossum had never seen the stage version of The Phantom of the Opera prior to filming and at the direction of the composer and director waited to see it until after filming had been completed. She studied Degas' paintings of ballerinas in the Musee d'Orsay to learn how to stand like one for her role in the film. After the film was released, Rossum was offered to make a classical music album by several companies, but declined, deciding instead to record an album of contemporary music, on which she has recently begun production. Rossum describes the album as "pop music... but not bubblegum pop." Rossum also says that the lyrics are coming from her personal journals and diaries... which she thinks makes it more relatable to people. The self-titled album is to be released during summer of 2007.
Rossum's latest role (as of 2007) is in Poseidon, a high-budget disaster film in which she plays the daughter of Kurt Russell's character. The film opened on May 12, 2006 to mixed reviews and flopped domestically at the box office. Rossum has expressed a desire to choose a "smaller" and "more intimate" film for her next project. During the summer of 2006, she appeared as Juliet in a Williamstown Theatre Festival production of Romeo and Juliet.
Personal life
Rossum lives with her mother in Manhattan. She dated David Wildenstein, a member of the French billionaire art-dealing Wildenstein family, from 2004 to 2005, but they have since broken up. Rossum has said that she would not date other celebrities, and prefers to keep her personal life away from the media spotlight, wishing to "fly under the radar" by living in her native New York City.
Rossum has elected not to attend college but has enrolled in some extension courses offered at Columbia University. She has already completed a course in art history, being inspired by her study of Degas in Paris. Emmy has recently become a youth ambassador for YouthAIDS.
Emmy has Celiac disease, an auto-immune disease where the body has an intolerance to all foods containing gluten and any wheat.
