Paula Abdul

Paula Abdul was born in San Fernando Valley, California. She began taking dance lessons when she was just eight. She attended Van Nuys High School, where she was the senior class head cheerleader and president. She graduated in 1980 and began college at Cal State Northridge to major in TV and radio. After joining the L.A. Lakers cheerleaders, she became head cheerleader/choreographer after only a few months, eventually dropping out of college to dance and choreograph full-time. The Jacksons hired her to choreograph their 1984 video "Torture", the first in a lengthy line of movies and videos she would choreograph. After her debut album "Forever Your Girl", her singing career began to take off. The single "Straight Up" was a massive success and she has been a successful dancer/singer ever after. This was helped by her stint on American Idol (2002-2004). Her father, Harry Abdul, is Sephardic Jewish from Syria. Her mother, also Jewish, was born and was raised in Canada. Her parents have been in Syria, Brazil, and Canada and this diverse backgrounds have led to various stories that have been published in the media about her nationality and/or religion. She is the daughter of Harry Abdul, a former Brazilian livestock trader, and Lorainne Abdul, a former assistant to Billy Wilder in film direction. She has been dancing and singing since she was seven years young, during an adventure across America. She also took tap dancing classes and was awarded the chance to attend a dancing school. She was a student at Cal State-Northridge College where she majored in Broadcast radio. She auditioned to be an official cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers NBA Basketball Cheerleading team.