EMMY ROSSUM
Before They Were Famous
THEY’RE big stars now, but that wasn’t always the case.
BY MARK WASSERMAN
Emmy was raised by her single mother
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HIS week we’re shamelessly crushing on actress and singer Emmy Rossum. You’ll recall that she sang her heart out in the movie musical The Phantom Of The Opera in 2004, and she’s since made herself a household name thanks to her role as Fiona on the hit TV show, Shameless. In 2007, Rossum released her debut album, Inside Out, and she also released a Christmas EP the same year titled Carol Of The Bells. In 2013, she released a follow up album called Sentimental Journey. Her passion for the arts knows no bounds! And at the young age of 29, the sky is the limit for the US-born beauty’s career. Read on to find out what life was like for the songstress before she was famous! EMMANUELLE GREY ROSSUM was born in Manhattan on September 12, 1986. EMMY is the only child of Cheryl Rossum, a single mother who worked as a corporate photographer. She is related by EMMY has stated that her mother instilled in marriage to her the ‘Jewish code of ethics and morals’. Vera Wang HER parents separated while her mother was pregnant; as of 2007, she had met her father twice. ROSSUM was named after her great-grandfather, whose first name was Emanuel, using the feminine spelling Emmanuelle. SHE is a relative, by marriage, of designer Vera Wang, who was married to Rossum’s cousin. UPON singing Happy Birthday in all 12 keys, Emmy was invited to join the Metropolitan Opera Children’s Chorus by chorus director Elena Doria at the age of seven. OVER the course of five years, she sang on stage with the She played Christine Daaé in chorus and had the chance to perform with other opera The Phantom Of The Opera greats such as Plácido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti. FOR anywhere from R75 to R150 a night, Emmy sang in six languages in 20 operas, including La Bohème, Turandot, As a young Audrey a Carnegie Hall presentation of La Damnation De Faust, Hepburn and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. EMMY has also worked under the direction of Franco Zeffirelli in Carmen. EMMY joked in interviews that her vocal talent and affinity for music developed because her mother always listened to classical music and operas while she was pregnant with her. EMMY received her high school diploma at 15 years old via online extension courses offered by Stanford University’s Education Programme for Gifted Youth. ROSSUM later attended Columbia University. ROSSUM’S television debut was in August 1997, as the original Abigail Williams in the long-running daytime soap opera As The World Turns. EMMY also had a guest role as Caroline Beels in Snoops. EMMY was nominated for a Young Artist Award in 1999 for Best Performance in a TV Movie for her work in She’s become a the made-for-TV movie Genius. Following that movie, she fan favourite on Shameless portrayed a young Audrey Hepburn in the TV movie The Audrey Hepburn Story. ROSSUM made her silver screen debut in 2000’s Songcatcher as Deladis Slocumb, an Appalachian orphan. DEBUTING at the Sundance Film Festival, the film won the Special Jury Award for Outstanding Ensemble Performance. For her role, Rossum received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for Best Debut Performance and also had the opportunity to sing a duet with Dolly Parton on the Songcatcher soundtrack. Variety magazine named Rossum as ‘One of the 10 to Watch’ in 2000.
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