Before she began working on American comics, Emanuela worked on the Italian series L'Insonne as well as some short stories in anthologies. She also worked as a character designer for role-playing game books and as an illustrator too. Her first American assignment was for IDW, working on the titles Angel: Only Human and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Fool's Gold in 2009. Because of her love of the super hero genre, she openly campaigned and sent in submissions to both Marvel and DC, and was soon put to work on Marvel's X-Factor beginning with issue #211 in 2010. In 2011, she worked on the JLA 80-page Giant anthology. Since working on the aforementioned titles, she has become one of the most in-demand artists for fans wanting renditions of their favorite characters. She is currently the illustrator for the ongoing Supergirl series.

Emanuela has stated that her art is inspired by five artists: Dave Stevens, Steve Rude, Kevin Nowlan, Adam Hughes, and Ryan Sook.