Nicole Elikolani Prescovia Scherzinger was born on June 29, 1978, in Honolulu, Hawaii. She is of Hawaiian, Filipina and Russian descent, and comes from a large family of entertainers — her mother, Rosemary, was a professional hula dancer, and her grandmother was a respected Mariachi singer.

When Nicole was just 6 years old, her military father was transferred to Louisville, Kentucky, where she began attending performing arts schools, pursuing an education that would persist throughout her adolescence. As a teenager, she was the first runner-up at the 1996 Kentucky State Fair’s Coca-Cola Talent Classic contest, and she appeared in several plays at Louisville’s Actors Theater.