Emily was born in 1978 as the youngest of five to James and Carole Christensen and grew up at the foot of the Wasatch Range of the Rocky Mountains in Orem, Utah. She graduated from the Waterford School in Sandy, Utah in 1996 and received a Bachelor of Fine Arts with an emphasis in painting in 2001 from Brigham Young University.
A mother of four (three lovely daughters and one much-doted-upon boy), Emily and her loving husband Gavin, reside in sunny Chandler, Arizona.