Paula Abdul

Paula Abdul was born in San Fernando Valley, California. She started taking dance classes when she was eight. She went to Van Nuys High School, in which she was a senior class president and head cheerleader. 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 recruited her to choreograph the 1984 "Torture" the first of a series of videos and movies she would choreograph. She began singing with her first CD, "Forever Your Girl" that had a lackluster success until her single "Straight Up" exploded onto the charts in December 1988 . Since then, she has been a popular performer ever since. Her popularity was further boosted by her appearance as an judge on the hit series American Idol (2002). Her father (Harry Abdul) is of Sephardic Jewish background from Syria. Her mother, who is also Jewish, was born and raised in Canada. Her parents have been in Syria, Brazil, and Canada and this diverse background has contributed to incredibly diverse stories in the media about her ethnicity or religion. Born in Hollywood, California to Harry Abdul (another livestock trader in Brazil) & Lorainne Abdul (former assistant of film director Billy Wilder), she was raised. She has been singing and dancing since she was 7 years old. old, while on an adventure across America. She also took tap dancing lessons too, which is how she received a scholarship at a tap dancing schools. Later on in life she attended Cal State-Northridge College where she pursued a degree in Broadcast radio. She auditioned for the Los Angeles Lakers NBA cheerleading team. It led to her making $50 per game in her freshman year.