Emmy Rossum

Emmy Rossum is an American actress, singer, and writer whose two-decade career has been most-defined by her 11-year role as Fiona Gallagher on Showtime's American adaptation of the British dramedy Shameless (2011–2019). She was born Emmanuelle Grey Rossum on September 12, 1986, in New York City, into a Jewish-American family. Her parents divorced when she was an infant, and she was raised primarily by her mother Cheryl Rossum, who worked as a freelance corporate photographer.

She started training in classical voice at age seven at the Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus, where she sang in Met productions through her early teens. Her film career began at age nine with the 1995 Susan Seidelman film An American in Paris (TV movie). Her film breakthrough came in 2004 with three substantial roles — Wolfgang Petersen's The Day After Tomorrow, Joel Schumacher's The Phantom of the Opera (where her singing role as Christine Daaé earned her a Best Actress Golden Globe nomination at age 18), and the indie drama Mystic River (2003).

Her Showtime series Shameless ran for 11 seasons across 134 episodes from January 9, 2011 to April 11, 2021. The American adaptation of the Paul Abbott British series — produced by John Wells — was set in the working-class South Side of Chicago and built around the Gallagher family of six children. Rossum's Fiona Gallagher — the eldest daughter forced into the role of family caretaker after her father Frank's alcoholism left the family without parental supervision — became one of the American dramatic-TV lead performances of the 2010s. She left the show after its ninth season in 2019.

She has been with American TV producer Sam Esmail (creator of USA Network's Mr. Robot) since 2017, and the couple has two children. She has continued to work selectively across film and TV, including her 2022 Apple TV+ thriller Tomorrow's Children. She also produced and starred in the 2022 Peacock limited series Angelyne — about Los Angeles billboard model Angelyne — for which she received an Best Actress Golden Globe nomination.

Her name Emmy is the English short form of Emily, Emma, or Emmaline (from the Old Germanic Erm meaning "universal"). Emmy has been continuously climbing in American naming since the 2000s.