In his third year of drama school, friend Ashley Callie was going to audition for Johannesburg's annual Christmas pantomime, directed by the award-winning Janice Honeyman. Emery was persuaded to go along and ended up being cast. He played a couple of characters, but impressed with his stand-up routine during a set change. As a result, fellow cast member, veteran actor Bill Flynn introduced him to his agent and his career was started. Around this time, he also began what was to become a prolific voice career. (He would later win a Gold Craft Award at the 2003 Loerie Advertising Awards) He played in a number of stand-up venues and established himself as character actor, often performing multiple roles within a single play, such as all the male roles in Mark Ravenhill's "Sleeping Around" and Tom, Leslie and Phyllis in A.R. Gurney's "Sylvia".