Emília das Neves de Sousa was born on 5 August 1820. She was the daughter of Manuel de Sousa, who came from Angra do Heroísmo, on Terceira Island in the Portuguese islands of the Azores. Her mother was Benta de Sousa who, like her daughter, was born in the parish of Benfica, now part of Lisbon. Emília had a sister, Marie Clara, who also became an actress. In 1838 she was living in poor circumstance in Lisbon at the home of someone who knew some of the actors at the "Teatro da Rua dos Condes". One day, an actor offered her and some friends free tickets for the "Condes". She was so entranced by the performance and the actor, in turn, was so impressed with her ability to reproduce part of the show she had seen, that he introduced her to the theatre where, although lacking any education, she was given lessons by the director, Émile Doux. Doux had arrived in Portugal at the end of the Portuguese Civil War in 1835 with a French theatre company and stayed after it returned to France, taking charge of a new Portuguese theatre company.