Emma Howell

Emma Pillsbury Schuester (previously Pillsbury-Howell) is a fictional character from the Fox musical comedy-drama series Glee. Portrayed by actress Jayma Mays, Emma has appeared in Glee from its pilot episode, first broadcast on May 19, 2009. Emma was developed by Glee creators Ryan Murphy, Brad Falchuk and Ian Brennan. She is a guidance counselor at the fictional William McKinley High School in Lima, Ohio where the series is set. Emma suffers from obsessive-compulsive disorder and has romantic feelings for glee club director Will Schuester (Matthew Morrison), but becomes engaged to football coach Ken Tanaka (Patrick Gallagher) as Will is married. Ken ultimately breaks up with her on their wedding day because of her feelings for Will, and when Will leaves his wife Terri (Jessalyn Gilsig), he and Emma share a kiss. Their relationship is short-lived, and in the second season, Emma and her dentist boyfriend Carl Howell (John Stamos) marry in Las Vegas. The wedding is later annulled as it was unconsummated. At the beginning of the third season, she and Will are living together; they become engaged shortly after New Years, and consummate their relationship near the end of the school year. Emma leaves Will at the altar midway through the fourth season, but the two later reconcile and marry in the season finale. She becomes pregnant during the middle of the fifth season.Mays feels the character has a lot of depth, juxtaposing Emmas position helping the students with her own phobia of germs and love for a married man. She explained that the character is not a stereotypical TV-style husband-stealer who immediately would be luring the dude into the sack, but rather seems like a real person facing real issues. Mays has performed several musical numbers in the show, including I Could Have Danced All Night from My Fair Lady, Madonnas Like a Virgin, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me from The Rocky Horror Show, Afternoon Delight by the Starland Vocal Band, and The 5th Dimensions Wedding Bell Blues. Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me was originally Mays audition piece; her performance of it on Glee was met with critical acclaim. The songs appear on the series soundtrack albums and EPs.The character has been well received by critics, including Mike Hale of the New York Times who praised Mays for being able to [register] Emmas devastation with just the slightest widening of [her] enormous eyes. Critics responded well to the development of Emma and Wills relationship. Eric Goldman of IGN wrote that their first kiss was hard to not feel good about. Dan Snierson of Entertainment Weekly, however, suggested that it may have been more intriguing to leave their romance unresolved.

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