Emma's storylines have included short-term relationships with David Platt (Jack P. Shepherd), Chesney Brown (Sam Aston) and Seb Franklin (Harry Visinoni), surviving a roof collapse at the local factory, discovering that Steve McDonald (Simon Gregson) is her biological father, a relationship with Curtis Delamere (Sam Retford) who suffers from factitious disorder and running over an elderly man in her car.

[2] Duncan Lindsay of the Metro reported that Emma would be incompetent at her job, which makes her clash with David Platt (Jack P. Shepherd), who had recently been raped by Josh Tucker (Ryan Clayton).

Before landing the job on Corrie, Mardell's only other television credit was for an episode of Vera in 2017, since appearing on the show, she has become the co-artistic director at the JunkBox Theatre in Manchester.

[6] However, Angela Griffin made a return to the street in real-life to film her scenes and spent time catching up with Nicholls and Mardell.

[8] After the parental developments were announced, some fans began theorising that a twist could see Emma turn out to be Jim McDonald (Charles Lawson)'s daughter instead of Steve's, due to his involvement with Fiona in the 1990s.

[8] Teasing her character's future, Mardell said: "No one will ever replace her dad, but her mum lives in Australia and she doesn't have any other family on the Street so it would be a waste to let that relationship go.

When Emma arrives late, having missed her tram as she was too busy preparing for her first day, she begins irritating David by accidentally dropping products on the floor, her lack of initiative to put the kettle on and her constant apologies for her mistakes, among other things.

Despite his initial dislike for Emma, David realised that she was the perfect opportunity to help him feel masculine again - after he was viciously raped by his supposed friend Josh Tucker (Ryan Clayton) in March that year.

Shona tells David to stop using Emma, as she is young and naive and shouldn't be brought into his dramas - but he refuses until the tragic suicide of Aidan Connor (Shayne Ward) in May.

Emma gets over being dumped quickly, moving into 19a Rosamund Street with Billy Mayhew (Daniel Brocklebank) and Summer Spellman (Matilda Freeman) - as per Shona's advice and begins showing an interest in local builder Seb Franklin (Harry Visinoni) who, unlike David, was of a similar age to her.

Eventually, Emma moved in to 2a Coronation Street with Maria, her son Liam Connor (Charlie Wrenshall) and Bethany Platt (Lucy Fallon) after deciding to leave Billy's flat after it got too cramped with the addition of Sean Tully (Antony Cotton).