Whoopi Goldberg was born Caryn Johnson in New York City. Her mother, a nurse and teacher, raised her daughter and a son on her own after Whoopi's preacher father left the family. The future star spent the first years of her life in a public housing project in Manhattan. Drawn to the theater from earliest childhood, she made her performing debut at age eight with the Helena Rubinstein Children's Theatre at the Hudson Guild. After dropping out of high school at 14, she lied about her age to find work as a summer camp counselor, and singing in the choruses of the Broadway shows Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar and Pippin. After surviving an early experience with drug addiction, she married at age 18, and gave birth to a daughter, Alexandrea.