Nicole Scherzinger : Half Filipina

Scherzinger was born Nicole Prescovia Elikolani Valiente in Honolulu, Hawaii, into a staunchly Roman Catholic family. Her father, Alfonso Valiente, is of Filipino descent, and her mother, Rosemary Elikolani, is of half-Hawaiian and half-Russian descent. Her mother was eighteen at the time of Scherzinger's birth and lived in an inner city neighborhood. Scherzinger's parents separated when she was still a baby. When she was six years old, her maternal family moved to Louisville, Kentucky, with her sister, Keala, and her German American stepfather, Gary Scherzinger. She took her stepfather's surname after he adopted her. She first attended Bowen Elementary, and later attended Meyzeek Middle School as an adolescent. Scherzinger states that, growing up, her family did not have a lot of money, and she thanks her mother for all the support she gave her to become what she is today. Scherzinger began performing in Louisville, attending the Youth Performing Arts School at duPont Manual High School, and performing with Actors Theatre of Louisville. As a teenager, Scherzinger was the first runner-up at the 1996 Kentucky State Fair's Coca-Cola Talent Classic contest.

When Hawaiian-born Nicole Scherzinger was growing up in Louisville, Kentucky, she received a Christmas gift at the age of six that would change the course of her life: a tiny purple boombox and a cassette of Whitney Houston’s chart-topping 1985 self-titled debut album. “My parents had no money, but they got me this player and Whitney’s album, which had ‘Greatest Love of All’ on it,” Scherzinger recalls. “That was it for me. From that moment on I wanted to sing. Her voice was so powerful; every note she sang just felt like the truth.”

Ever since, Scherzinger has been chasing that truth in everything she does, funneling her relentless drive and deep desire to connect with people through performance into a multi-faceted career that has enabled her to sing (she lead the multi-platinum pop group The Pussycat Dolls to 10 million in album sales and numerous sold-out global tours), dance (she took home the mirror ball trophy as the tenth season winner of ABC’s Dancing With The Stars), and act (How I Met Your Mother, the Neil Patrick Harris-directed production of the Tony-Award winning musical Rent at the Hollywood Bowl, and a cameo in the upcoming feature film Men in Black III). Scherzinger’s smart critiques during her two seasons as a judge on NBC’s a cappella competition The Sing-Off, as well as her guest judge appearances on the British version of Simon Cowell’s televised talent show The X Factor so impressed Cowell that he tapped Scherzinger to serve as a judge on the American version of The X Factor, which launches on Fox this fall and is already one of the most-talked about new shows of the year.