Acting career

2001–2005: Early career and Unfabulous

During her childhood, Roberts spent time on the sets of her aunt Julia Roberts's films. These experiences sparked a desire in Emma, from the age of five, to follow her father and aunts into the film industry. Although her mother initially wanted her to have a normal childhood, Roberts made her acting debut at age nine in Ted Demme's 2001 drama Blow. It was the first film for which she ever auditioned.[citation needed] In the film, she portrayed Kristina Jung, the daughter of Johnny Depp's character, cocaine smuggler George Jung. In 2001, Roberts also had a role in Leif Tilden's 10-minute short bigLove, and was an uncredited extra in some scenes featuring her aunt Julia Roberts in America's Sweethearts.

She went on to appear in smaller roles in two family films, in 2002's Grand Champion, as the sister of the main character Buddy (Jacob Fisher); and in 2003's Spymate, as the kidnapped daughter of former secret agent Mike Muggins (Chris Potter), who tries to rescue her with the help of a spy monkey. Grand Champion had a brief theatrical release in August 2004, while Spymate was not released until February 2006, when it was given a theatrical run in Canada, followed by its DVD release in April 2006. In August 2003, Roberts was scheduled to shoot an independent film called Daisy Winters, starring as the title character, alongside Rachel Weisz. However, the film, which would have been Roberts's first leading role, never began shooting due to financial problems.

In 2004, Roberts became a teen idol at the age of 13, starring as the lead character Addie Singer in the Nickelodeon series Unfabulous, which debuted in September 2004. Nickelodeon had wanted to cast her for the role from the beginning, and the teen sitcom earned Roberts a Teen Choice Award nomination and several Young Artist Award nominations.The show aired for three seasons from 2004–2007 and aired 42 episodes; the third season ended on December 16, 2007.

The television series focused on Addie Singer (Roberts) a seventh grader whose life is "unfabulous" and she writes songs about her life. The television series had had various TV movies which include: The Perfect Moment which premiered on Nickelodeon on October 6, 2006. In 2004 Roberts guest-starred in an episode of the Nickelodeon series Drake and Josh, Roberts was in the episode "Honor Council". Because her character on Unfabulous writes songs and plays guitar, Nickelodeon soon considered a career in music for Roberts .

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