Paula Abdul

Paula Abdul was raised in San Fernando Valley. She began taking dance lessons at the age of eight. She was a student at Van Nuys High School, where she was the senior class head cheerleader and president. 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. The Jacksons recruited her to choreograph the 1984 "Torture" which was their first of many videos and movies she choreographed. 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 helped her become an increasingly popular performer/dancer. Her father, Harry Abdul, is Sephardic Jewish from Syria. Her mother is Jewish and was born in Canada. Her parents have lived in Syria, Brazil, and Canada - and this varied background has led to diverse stories in the media about her ethnicity or religion. Daughter of Harry Abdul (once a livestock trader in Brazil) and Lorainne Abdul (former assistant to director Billy Wilder), grew in Hollywood, California. Since the age of seven, she sung and danced in local musical theatre troupes while traveling around America. She was enrolled in tap dance classes as well, in which she received a scholarship to tap dancing school. She attended Cal State-Northridge College, where she majored in Broadcast radio. She applied to be a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers NBA Basketball Cheerleading team.