Paula Abdul

Paula Abdul was born in San Fernando Valley, California. At age eight, she began dancing lessons. Van Nuys High School was her high school. She was also the cheerleader of the year and class president for senior year. She graduated in 1980, and entered college at Cal State Northridge to major 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 recruited her to choreograph the 1984 "Torture" video, which was the first of a series of videos and movies she choreographed. After the release of her debut CD "Forever Your Girl" she began to sing and became a popular dancer and singer. The time she spent as an American Idol judge (2002) has helped her become more well-known as a performer and dancer. Her father, Harry Abdul, is Sephardic Jewish from Syria. Her mother, too Jewish was born and was raised in Canada. Her parents are from Canada, Brazil, Syria and Brazil. These diverse experiences have led to different stories in the media concerning her ethnicity or religion. Born in Hollywood, California to Harry Abdul (another livestock trader from Brazil) & Lorainne Abdul (former assistant of film director Billy Wilder), she was raised. She has been singing and dancing since she was 7 years old. of age, on the road in America. Tap dancing was also something she tried, and she was awarded a scholarship for tapping classes. Later in life she attended Cal-State-Northridge College in which she majored in Broadcast radio. She auditioned for the Los Angeles Lakers NBA cheerleading team. This led to her earning $50 per game her freshman year.