Paula Abdul

Paula Abdul was raised in San Fernando Valley. At the age of eight older, she began her dancing lessons. Van Nuys High School was where she was the class president and chief cheerleader. Her high school graduation was in 1980. After graduation she entered the college process at Cal State Northridge. There she was a radio and television major. and television. 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. She was enlisted by The Jacksons to choreograph their 1984 "Torture" video, the first of a number of movies and videos she would choreograph. She branched out into singing through her first album, "Forever Your Girl" which was not a huge success until the single "Straight Up" exploded onto the charts in December 1988 and she has been a renowned singer/dancer ever since, enhanced by her appearance as an adjudicator on the popular series American Idol (2002). Her father (Harry Abdul) is of Sephardic Jewish background from Syria. Her mother, who is also Jewish was born in Canada. Her parents lived in Canada, Syria, Brazil and Syria. This has created a myriad of stories about her religion and nationality in the media. The daughter is Harry Abdul, a former Brazilian livestock trader, and Lorainne Abdul, who was the former assistant to Billy Wilder in film direction. As young as seven she performed in musical theatre groups that traveled around America. Tap dancing was also something she attempted, and was awarded a scholarship to tapping classes. In the future, she attended Cal State-Northridge College, where she studied in Broadcast radio. She auditioned to be a cheerleader on the Los Angeles Lakers NBA Basketball Cheerleading team.