Paula Scharf was born with a twisted hip tendon, leading her mother to enroll her in physical activity at the age of 3 to treat it. Thus from early childhood a trained dancer and gymnast, once she graduated Guilford High School in 1985, she went to study at the University of the Arts and then the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater in New York City. While introducing herself to a college student in New York he misheard Paula as "Apollo", and went on to say that it fit her despite being a male name as the Greek god Apollo "represents music, dance, light, and poetry", so she went with it. The latter part of her name came as a producer suggested an equally different surname, exploiting Scharf's oft-complimented smile. She legally changed her name to Apollo Smile in 1991. An injury made Scharf opt to seek a singing career, working with producer Freddie "Groove Commander" Richmond. After contributing the song "Let's Rock" for A&M Records' soundtrack for the 1989 film Lost Angels, once a Los Angeles friend of Richmond visited his studio, she was impressed with the songs he was working with Smile, and smuggled a tape of theirs to a Geffen Records executive. Soon the A&R man went to New York to court Smile, and four months later she had signed with DGC Records. In 1990, Smile's song "Thunderbox" was featured on the soundtrack album for the Tom Cruise film Days of Thunder, and the following year she released a self-titled album, from which came the track. However, afterwards Smile was dropped along with most of DGC's signees. By the mid-90s, Smile was attending conventions of anime, a lifelong fandom of hers. This led to her 1996 reinvention herself as the "Live Action Anime Girl", wearing skin-tight spandex clothing, with her blonde hair in pigtails tied off with pink bows. Her appearances usually showcased music concerts featuring her original upbeat music and demonstrations of her martial arts abilities. Soon she got to work as an anime voice actress, and was called by the Sci-Fi Channel to host Anime Week in the summer of 1998. Other projects included a self-published comic book featuring herself as the central character, and the voice of Ulala in the Space Channel 5 video game series. In 2001, Smile was doing stunt work and voice acting and wished to return to music, and joined Virginia-based "Atari rock" band Rockbot. Smile recorded one EP with Rockbot before leaving in 2003, while continuing her stunt and acting work. As Smile's mother became ill in 2006, she returned to her hometown to tend for her. The move brought Smile's career in dance and choreography back into focus. She got a job as a dance teacher at New Haven Ballet, as well as dancing schools in Killingworth and Guilford, and choreographed various high school dances ever since. Smile was also inspired by her father with Parkinson's disease to develop a routine of dancing exercises for elders with movement-impairing illnesses such as Parkinson's and arthritis.
