Paula Abdul

Paula Abdul was raised in San Fernando Valley. She started taking dance classes at the age of eight. She attended Van Nuys High School, where she was the class head cheerleader and president. When she graduated in 1980, she started the Cal State-Northridge campus, majoring in radio 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. The Jacksons hired her to choreograph their 1984 movie "Torture" which was the first in a lengthy series of movies and video she would choreograph. After her debut CD "Forever Your Girl" started singing, she turned to singing and was soon a well-known dancer and singer. Her stint as an American Idol judge (2002) has made her more well-known as a performer and dancer. Her father (Harry Abdul) is Sephardic Jewish and hails from Syria. Her mother is Jewish and was born in Canada. Her parents are from Canada, Brazil, Syria and Brazil. These diverse experiences have led to divergent stories in the news about her ethnicity or religion. Born in Hollywood, California to Harry Abdul (another livestock trader from Brazil) & Lorainne Abdul (former assistant to director Billy Wilder), she was raised. She's been dancing and singing since she was just seven years of age, on an adventure across America. Tap dancing was also a class she tried, and she received a scholarship to attend tap dancing school. In the following years, she went to Cal State Northridge College where she was a Broadcast radio specialist. She applied to be a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers NBA Basketball Cheerleading team.