Emmy Rossum

Born: September 12 1986
Where: New York, USA

The trained opera singer was catapulted into the limelight when she was cast as Jake Gyllenhaal's love interest in the disaster movie The Day After Tomorrow.

She continued to keep the momentum with the key role of Christine Daae in Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera.

After spending four years in New York's Metropolitan Opera Children's Chorus she headed to California and was cast as the young Audrey Hepburn aged 11.

After The Audrey Hepburn Story she attracted attention alongside Janet McTeer in the drama The Songcatcher.

Dolly Parton was so impressed she flew Rossum to Nashville to record the soundtrack duet When Love is New.

"We're like sisters," says Rossum. "We both have tons and tons of hair...only mine is real."

Subsequent appearances included the drama American Rhapsody with Scarlett Johannsen and the British TV thriller Happy Now.

In 2004, she appeared in the romantic comedy Passionada as a gambler and played the murder victim in Clint Eastwood's Mystic River.

Recent work includes Roland Emmerich's disaster movie The Day After Tommorow and Joel Schumacher's The Phantom of the Opera.