Paula Abdul

Paula Abdul grew up in the San Fernando Valley, California. When she was eight years old, she began taking dance classes. Van Nuys High School was where she was the class president and also the head cheerleader. Her high school graduation was in 1980. Following graduation, she began 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 recruited by The Jacksons to choreograph their 1984 "Torture" video, the first in a lengthy list of films and videos she would choreograph. With her first CD "Forever Your Girl", her singing career took off. However, the single "Straight Up" was a huge success and she has been a wildly successful performer/singer ever after. This was helped by her stint on American Idol (2002-2004). Her father (Harry Abdul) is from a Sephardic Jewish background from Syria. Her mother, who was also Jewish was born 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 nationality and/or religion. 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. At the age of seven, she sang and danced in musical theatre troupes that traveled around America. Tap dance classes were taken also, and she received a scholarship to the tap dancing school. She was a student at Cal State-Northridge College where she majored in Broadcast radio. During that time she was a candidate for the Los Angeles Lakers NBA Cheerleading team. The audition led her to a spot as a cheerleader for the squad, earning some 50 dollars per game in her first year of college.