The youngest of five children, Emily was born to Noeleen and Eamonn Taaffe in Skerries, Ireland. The family moved when she was an infant to Tullyallen near Drogheda, County Louth where she lived until university. After receiving a First-Class Honours B.A. in 2005 from Trinity College Dublin, she was accepted to train at London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) in London.

In the summer of 2016 she married the Writer Ben Schiffer

Having recently begun to expand into screen work, Emily's latest role was in CBC series ‘X COMPANY’, an emotionally driven character drama set in World War II, and Victorian era detective drama, Ripper Street. Additional T.V. credits include notable guest roles in the BBC’s New Tricks, Call the Midwife, Atlantis, and Death in Paradise as well as ITV’s Vera and The Borgias.

Emily has starred in a number of critically acclaimed theatrical productions across the UK and Ireland. Her credits include; Daphne in an adaptation of Terry Pratchett’s Nation’, Hannah Lambroke in Conor McPherson’s The Veil and Dunyasha in Howard Davies The Cherry Orchard all at the National Theatre, London. Emily played leading roles in The Comedy of Errors, The Tempest and Twelfth Night for The Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford upon Avon and in London. Other notable credits include; The Crucible at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre, Three Sisters at both the Southwark Playhouse and the Abbey Theatre Dublin, The American Plan at The Theatre Royal Bath, 'The House of Special Purpose' at Minerva Theatre, Chichester and Intemperance at the Liverpool Everyman Theatre.