Paula Julie Abdul, born June 19, 1962, is an American Emmy Award-winning, Grammy-winning, multi-platinum singer, choreographer, and television personality. Abdul was born in San Fernando, California, to Harry Abdul, who once worked as a livestock trader and owns a sand and gravel business in California, and Lorraine Rykiss, a former concert pianist who once worked as an assistant to film director Billy Wilder. Abdul's father comes from a family of Syrian Jews who immigrated to Brazil, while her mother is also Jewish and from Saint Boniface, an area of Winnipeg, Canada.