Emmy Rossum Biography

Emmanuelle Grey Rossum, popularly known as Emmy Rossum (born September 12, 1986) is an American actress and singer of Jewish descent.

An only child, she still lives with her photographer mother in the New York City house where she was born. At age seven, she joined the Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus, where she appeared in a number of productions, including Tchaikovsky's 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 TV biopic The Audrey Hepburn Story starring Jennifer Love Hewitt (2000).

Her films include Songcatcher and It Had to Be You (both in 2000), Mystic River (2003), and The Day After Tomorrow and The Phantom of the Opera (in which she sings the coveted role of Christine), both in 2004.

Rossum was enrolled at the prestigious all-girl Spence School in Manhattan until administrators upset with her frequent absences delivered an ultimatum - forego all career opportunities in order to concentrate on schoolwork, or withdraw. She opted for the latter, and recently graduated from high school after completing "virtual classes" sponsored online by Stanford University. She studied Degas' paintings of ballerinas in the Musee d'Orsay to learn how to stand like one for her role in The Phantom of the Opera. She is now enrolled at Columbia University and has already completed a course in art history, being inspired by her study of Degas in Paris. She is currently dating (as of 2005) David Wildenstein, a scion of the French billionaire art-dealing Wildenstein family.