Emmy Rossum's parents come from strikingly different cultural worlds, giving her a mixed ethnic heritage that she has spoken about openly throughout her career. Born Emmanuelle Grey Rossum on 12 September 1986 in New York City, the actress was raised solely by her Jewish mother, Cheryl Rossum, after her parents separated before she was even born. Though her father brought English and Dutch Protestant ancestry into the picture, it is her mother's Ashkenazi Jewish roots — tracing back to Eastern Europe — that shaped Rossum's identity, values, and upbringing.
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Spence School; Stanford EPGY; Columbia University
Emmy Rossum's mixed heritage is one of the most discussed aspects of her personal story. She possesses a mixed ethnicity, the product of her parents' very different backgrounds. Her father is a Protestant American of Northern European — particularly British — ancestry, while her mother is Russian-Jewish.
Emmy was born in New York City in 1986 to a Jewish mother and a Protestant father. Her parents separated while her mother was pregnant; as of 2007, she had met her father twice. Despite the interfaith mix, it was her mother's side that defined her upbringing.
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