Paula Abdul came to fame as a dancer and choreographer, and then moved on to a music and television career. She was born in 1962 in San Fernando of California. Her Mother, Lorraine Rykiss was a former concert pianist who once worked as an assistant to movie director Billy Wilder. The family roots are very mixed with branches from Syria, Brazil, Canada, and America. Paula was inspired to dance after seeing Gene Kelly in Singin’ In The Rain, and took dance lessons from an early age. She cites her other influences as Debbie Allen, Gregory Hines, Sammy Davis Jr., Fred Astaire, and Bob Fosse.

The dancing led to cheerleading when Paula Abdul joined the Laker Girls Squad for the LA Lakers. They were so impressed with her routines that they made her head choreographer when she was just twenty years old. The singing Jackson Family caught the act one day and hired Paula to choreograph their video for the album Victory. This launched a successful career in choreography in the music videos of the biggest stars of the 1980s. They included Janet Jackson, Duran Duran, Prince, Stevie Winwood, Luther Vandross, George Michael, and Dolly Parton. Paula performed herself too, in videos for Toto, Michael Jackson, and Janet Jackson. She also choreographed the stage productions for Toni Basil and Suzanne Somers.

Movie directors also snapped up Paula Abdul for their dance scenes. She choreographed for Coming To America starring Eddie Murphy, The Running Man starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, and American Beauty starring Kevin Spacey. Abdul was also responsible for two memorable sequences, namely Cuba Gooding Jr., celebrating a touchdown in Jerry Maguire and Tom Hanks playing a giant keyboard in Big. Paula was awarded the Outstanding Achievement in Choreography Emmy for The Tracey Ullman Show in 1989.

Not content with all her success thus far, Paula Abdul then embarked on a singing career, resulting in hit pop/dance records in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Her debut album topped the Billboard chart and produced five U.S. top five singles. The follow up album was also a huge success and a video for one of the singles featured heartthrob Keanu Reeves. The third album release however, had disappointing sales. Paula did have some songwriting success when she co-penned the hit single Spinning Around for Kylie Minogue. Paula says she is working on a new album but no release date has been fixed. After this, Paula had a brief period acting in made-for-TV movies but never made much of an impact.

Paula Abdul has been married briefly on two occasions, once to Emilio Estevez. She previously had relationships with actor John Starnos and talk show presenter Arsenio Hall. She also dated professional golfer Hank Kuehne for a short time, and stated in 2005 that she had split from model Dante Spencer.