Emmy Rossum

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Date of Birth : Sep 12th 1986

Golden Globe-nominated American actress and singer. She is probably most well known for her leading roles in the films The Day After Tomorrow and the 2004 version of The Phantom of the Opera. Rossum was born in New York City, New York to a Jewish family — her mother, Sheryl, a corporate photographer and her father a banker. Rossum’s parents divorced when her mother was pregnant and she was raised by her mother, having only met her father twice.

In Nola (2003), Rossum played the title character, an aspiring songwriter; in her first major studio film, Clint Eastwood’s Mystic River, Rossum stars as Katie Markum, the ill-fated daughter of small-business owner Jimmy Markum, played by Sean Penn. As Katie, Rossum is said to have “projected an aura of innocence that made her character’s tragic death memorable and heartbreaking”.

Following Mystic River, Rossum played protagonist Laura Chapman in the Roland Emmerich eco-disaster film The Day After Tomorrow opposite Dennis Quaid and Jake Gyllenhaal. After returning to New York, Rossum was the last to audition, in full costume and make-up for the coveted role of Christine Daaé in the screen adaptation of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber’s world-famous and longest running musical The Phantom of the Opera (2004). After an international search for talent, and having nearly missed the audition on account of a family engagement, a sixteen year-old Rossum was asked to audition in person for Lloyd Webber at his home in New York. Webber felt she proved her ability to play the young opera singer who becomes the object of the phantom’s obsessive love opposite Broadway singer Patrick Wilson as Raoul and actor Gerard Butler as The Phantom. For her role as Christine Daaé, Rossum received a Golden Globe nomination and many other awards.