Paula Abdul

Paula Abdul was born in San Fernando Valley, California. She started taking dance classes at the age of eight. Van Nuys High School was her high school. She was also the cheerleader of the year and the senior class president. After graduation in 1980, she started college at Cal State-Northridge with a major in radio and TV. 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 of a long sequence of videos and movies she choreographed. She began singing in her first album, "Forever Your Girl" with a mediocre sales performance until her single "Straight Up" exploded onto the charts in December of 1988. she has been a renowned dancer ever since, aided by her time as judge on the cult series American Idol (2002). Her father, Harry Abdul, is Sephardic Jewish from Syria. Her mother is Jewish and was born in Canada. Her parents were from Canada, Syria, Brazil and Syria. This has led to many different stories regarding her nationality and religion within the media. She is the daughter of Harry Abdul, a former Brazilian livestock trader, and Lorainne Abdul, who was a former assistant to Billy Wilder in film direction. She's been dancing and singing since she was seven years old, while on an adventure across America. Tap dancing was another activity she learned, and she was awarded a grant to go to tap dancing school. In later years, she went to Cal State Northridge College where she earned a degree as an Broadcast Radio Specialist. At the time she auditioned for the Los Angeles Lakers NBA Cheerleading team, and that led her to a spot as a cheerleader for the squad, earning some 50 dollars per game in her first year of college.