Biography

Paula Abdul grew up in the San Fernando Valley, California. She began taking dance lessons when she was eight. She attended Van Nuys High School, where she was senior class president and head cheerleader. After graduating in 1980, she started college at Cal State-Northridge, majoring in TV and radio. 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 long list of videos and movies she would choreograph. She branched out into singing with her first CD, "Forever Your Girl", which had lackluster sales until the single "Straight Up" exploded onto the charts in December 1988 and she has been a popular singer/dancer ever since, enhanced by her stint as a judge on the hit series American Idol: The Search for a Superstar (2002).

- IMDb mini biography by: Pete Brennan

Her father (Harry Abdul) is of Sephardic Jewish background from Syria. Her mother is also Jewish and was born in Canada. Her parents have lived in Syria, Brazil, and Canada - and this varied background has contributed to incredibly different stories in the press about her nationality and/or religion. Daughter of Harry Abdul (once a livestock trader in Brazil) and Lorainne Abdul (former assistant to film director Billy Wilder), grew up in Hollywood, California. Since the age of seven, she sung and danced in community musical theatre groups while traveling around America. She took tap dance lessons as well, in which she was awarded a scholarship to tap dancing school. Later on in life, she attended Cal State-Northridge College in which she majored in Broadcast radio. During that time, she auditioned for the Los Angeles Lakers NBA Cheerleading team, and that led her to a spot as a cheerleader on the squad, earning some $50 a game during her freshman year.

Later on, she decided to take up choreography, working with artists such as the Jacksons and the Rolling Stones. Nowadays, she organizes dance camps for young children to come to and have fun during the summer. Paula has won many musical awards, such as a Grammy, 7 MTV video awards, 2 Emmy awards, and 2 People's Choice awards. On top of all that, she's had two #1 hit albums and seven #1 hit singles. To add to that, she has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She has done well for herself, and plans to write/sing/choreograph for as long as she can.

- IMDb mini biography by: dviper98

Paula Abdul is an American singer, producer, dancer, choreographer, actress, TV presenter. Winner of the Grammy and Emmy awards.

Her talent for choreography began at the age of seven, when she was asked to choreograph a dance for a school party. Abdul worked her way up from being a Los Angeles Lakers cheerleader in the 1980s. Paula Abdul choreographed some music videos in the 1980s, including most of Janet Jackson's Control-era videos. In 1986, she received an MTV award for best choreographer of the year for her dances choreographed for Janet Jackson's Nasty video. In 1987, Abdul recorded a demo album with her savings. Although her voice was weak, her dancing skills became a big asset in show business. She worked hard and hired a vocal coach. In 1988, Abdul released her debut album, Forever Your Girl, which took a record 62 weeks to top the US Billboard 200 top chart. The album went multi-platinum in the summer of 1989. Abdul's second album, Spellbound, was released in 1991 and sold 7 million copies worldwide. In 1995, Abdul returned to the music industry with her new album, Head Over Heels.

- IMDb mini biography by: Tango Papa