Wade Robson

That talent was planted down in Brisbane, Australia, by his mother, Joy Robson, 51. She played Michael Jackson’s Thriller nonstop while pregnant with Wade, the youngest of her three children with ex-husband Dennis Robson (a mental-health worker who died in 2002 after a long illness). By age 4, Wade could duplicate the King of Pop’s every move. “We lived on a quiet street,” says Joy. “He’d dance out there for hours and hours, then come back and say, ‘Nobody ever drives past.’ He wanted an audience.” He got one at 5, when he won a national Jackson dance-impersonation contest. First prize: meeting the Gloved One, who invited Robson to perform at his Brisbane concert. Jackson later encouraged Joy to bring Wade, then 8, to the States. He cast him in three of his videos (including “Black or White”) and signed him to his private label as half of a short-lived rap duo, Quo. Robson remains a loyal friend. “His heart is so genuine,” says Robson, who landed his first choreography gig (for the band Immature) at 14 and earned his GED a year later. “He has no concept of a normal life.”