Cheryl rose to fame in 2002 after becoming a member of pop group Girls Aloud through ITV`s reality television program Popstars: The Rivals.
Cheryl was born in Newcastle, England and grew up in poverty on council estates in the inner districts of the city. She attended Walker Comprehensive School in Newcastle, but left at 16 with few qualifications. After school she took a job as a waitress in a restaurant.
Interested in dancing from an early age, Cheryl started sequence dancing at the age of four, before joining the Royal Ballet`s summer school at the age of nine. In addition to dancing, Cheryl won many modeling competitions, including Best Looking Girl of Newcastle, the Evening Chronicle "Little Miss and Mister", and "Most Attractive Girl" at the Metro Centre. She also appeared in dance recitals on some television shows.
Cheryl auditioned for the reality television show Popstars: The Rivals in 2002, and won it with four other contestant, the group`s debut single "Sound of the Underground" peaked at number one on the UK Singles Chart, their debut album. Sound of the Underground entered the charts at number two and was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry later the same year.
Girls Aloud became one of the few UK reality television acts to achieve continued success, and had amassed a fortune of £25 million by May 2009 in the same year Girls Aloud decided they would partake in a year-long hiatus to pursue solo projects, but would reunite for a new studio album in 2010.
June 10, 2008 Cheryl was announced as the replacement judge on the phenomenally successful British TV talent show X Factor. She replaced Sharon Osbourne. As mentor on the show, Cheryl was given the girls group to guide and ultimately one of her competitors, Alexandra Burke, won the competition. She returned in 2009 and is the mentor for the boys. Joe McElderry, one of the boys, has been cited as a favorite to win.
In April 2009, she started working on solo material. Her debut album, 3 Words, was released in the UK. Cheryl had mainly collaborated with will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas who executively produced the album. The album crosses different genres of music from contemporary R&B, dance pop, house and a more general pop sound.
Cheryl contributed to the book Dreams that Glitter - Our Story, an autobiography with her Girls Aloud bandmates, later it was reported that Cheryl had signed a £5million deal with HarperCollins to author five romantic novels for the company. Her first official book entitled My World will be published on 30 September 2010.