Early life
Roberts was born in Decatur, Georgia. She is of English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, German, and Swedish descent. Her parents, Betty Lou Bredemus (1934-2015) and Walter Grady Roberts (1933-1977), one-time actors and playwrights, met while touring a production of "George Washington Slept Here" for the armed forces. In 1963 they co-founded the Atlanta Actors and Writers Workshop in Atlanta, Georgia. Roberts' mother, became a church secretary and real estate agent, and her father, a vacuum cleaner salesman. [2] They filed for divorce in 1971 and it was finalized early in 1972. [3] Eric stayed with his father in Atlanta, estranged from his sisters.
Decatur is a city in, and the county seat of, DeKalb County, Georgia that is part of the Atlanta metropolitan area. With a population of 20,148 in the 2013 census, the municipality is sometimes assumed to be larger since multiple ZIP Codes in unincorporated DeKalb County bear the Decatur name. The city is served by three MARTA rail stations. The city is located approximately 5 miles northeast of downtown Atlanta and shares its western border with Atlanta.
Betty Lou Bredemus was an American actress and acting coach. The matriarch of the Roberts family, which includes Academy Award-winning actress Julia Roberts, Academy Award- nominee actor Eric Roberts, and granddaughter Emma Roberts, she also served in the United States Air Force and received a National Defense Service Medal for her service, which was spent entertaining the troops in Air Force base theatrical productions.
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. With an estimated 2017 population of 486,290, it is also the 38th most-populous city in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, home to 5.8 million people and the ninth-largest metropolitan area in the nation. Atlanta is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia. A small portion of the city extends eastward into neighboring DeKalb County.
