General Hospital Casts Braedyn Bruner As New Emma Drake

Get ready for a new Emma Drake on General Hospital. Braedyn Bruner debuts in the role formerly portrayed by Brooklyn Rae Silzer, today, Monday, December 23. Here’s what you need to know.

Welcome Emma

TV Insider reported that Bruner, who takes on the role of Robin Scorpio (Kimberly McCullough) and Patrick Drake’s (Jason Thompson) daughter, began her career at the age of five.

Bruner, a native of Texas, said her mom was thrilled that she was testing for the role. “When my mom found out that I was screen-testing with Finola [Hughes, Anna Devane, Emma’s grandmother], she was just beside herself. They have just been so supportive throughout my entire career and they both cried.”

The actress has been in two films that were released close together. Break (Millie) and V/H/S Beyond (Angela). She was also in an episode of Barney and Friends in 2009. She portrayed Natalie in the 2020 movie Full Out 2: You Got This! She moved to Los Angeles full time in 2023.

“I’ve been really lucky,” Bruner told the outlet. “I had two films come out kind of one after the other. I did a coming-of-age drama movie that I was a lead in called Break. It’s a really lovely story. And then on the flip side of that, the other film that I did was a horror film directed by Justin Long and [brother] Christian Long. It’s an anthology series and I got to do full prosthetics and deal with some really dark material. So that was really different, challenging, and fun as well. But this is my first time on a soap, which is a completely different beast.”

Bruner used details from the soap to learn more about Emma and who she is in Port Charles. “Part of the audition process for me was going back and watching old episodes and YouTube videos of what I could find of Robin and Patrick and what their relationship was like with Emma and also what Emma’s relationship was like with Anna,” she said. “I started with her birth scene and then as she’s grown up to understand her relationships with everyone in Port Charles. Pulling from that has been really important for me.”

What do you hope to see her do as Emma? Let us know in the comments below.