Paula Abdul

Paula Abdul was born in San Fernando Valley, California. She started dancing at the age of eight. Van Nuys High School was her high school. She was also the school's head cheerleader and class president for senior year. Her high school graduation was in 1980. Following graduation she enrolled in college 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 hired her to choreograph their 1984 video "Torture" that was the first in a long sequence of videos and movies she choreographed. Following her debut album "Forever Your Girl" she began to sing and soon became a well-known artist and performer. The stint she held as an American Idol judge (2002) has made her a popular performer/dancer. Her father (Harry Abdul) is of Sephardic Jewish background from Syria. Her mother, also Jewish was born and raised in Canada. Her parents have been in Syria, Brazil, and Canada and this diverse background has resulted in wildly various stories that have been published in the media about her country of origin and/or her religion. The daughter of Harry Abdul (once a livestock trader in Brazil) and Lorainne Abdul (former assistant to director Billy Wilder), grew up in Hollywood, California. As young as seven she sang and danced in musical theatre ensembles which toured across America. Tap dancing was another activity she took, and she was awarded a scholarship for tap dancing classes. Later in her life she attended Cal State Northridge College where she majored as a Broadcast radio specialist. She applied to become a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers NBA Basketball Cheerleading team.