LISA TUCKER

Age: 16

Residence: Anaheim

Experience: Won the role of Young Nala in the Los Angeles production of “The Lion King” in 2001, and finished second in the junior singer competition on “Star Search” in 2003.

“I was so nervous going into the first audition,” Lisa Tucker says of the trip to Denver she took with her parents, Stanley and Eleanor Tucker, to try out for “American Idol.”

“It really didn’t matter what I’d done or anything – it was just a whole new deal.”

It didn’t really matter that she felt nervous, either, as it turned out.

After dazzling the judges with a Whitney Houston song, she won rare praise from the toughest, Simon Cowell, who pronounced her the best 16-year-old singer ever to appear on the show.

“It was such a big relief, hearing what Simon and the judges had to say,” says Tucker, a senior at Kennedy High School. “But at the same time, I knew it was putting pressure on me.”

Not that any of that pressure shows in Tucker’s performances or conversation, mind you. For a teenager, she is remarkably self-assured and grounded.

Still, she admits that the “American Idol” experience, even after just a few weeks of exposure, is like nothing she’s ever imagined.

“I was about 10 when I started ‘The Lion King,’ and that’s any kid’s dream,” she says. “But being on ‘American Idol’ is such an amazing experience.

“I used to sit in the family room and watch it with my family – and now I’m on it! It’s so weird; I’m like, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s me on TV!'”

Already – as one of the final 20 contestants – life is changing, she says.

“I was at the mall the other day, buying a pair of shoes, and the woman at the desk said, ‘Oh, my goodness, you’re on “American Idol!”‘” she says. “I didn’t know what to say; I just had a big smile on my face.

“People say, ‘Oh, you’re going to get sick of it,’ but no, I’m not getting sick of it. It’s so exciting.”

JOHN DEVENANZIO

Age: 23

Residence: Fullerton

Experience: Partying in the O.C. Oh, and an economics degree from Pennsylvania State University in 2005.

“My goal out of college was to go into pharmaceutical sales,” says John Devenanzio, who last week left Fullerton to move to New York City. “That’s kind of the path I was heading – but I was willing to postpone buckling down.”

And why not? Because more than anything else, isn’t MTV’s “The Real World” like college with all the parties and none of the work?

Devenanzio never saw “The Real World” until he went off to college, but he soon was hooked.

His senior year, his roommates pushed him to audition, and after multiple interviews, he got the word right after graduation: He’d won a room in the Key West house and a reprieve from starting his post-college life.

“(I) hadn’t taken the necessary steps of getting myself into a long-term profession or even a good job,” he says.”I’d made a resume and I’d gone to a couple of job fairs, but I hadn’t really been doing a whole lot.”

By the time he reached Key West last fall, a nasty hurricane season was in full roar, adding a surreal edge of danger to the usual danger created when amped-up and ego-fueled teens and twentysomethings are forced to live together day and night under the never-blinking eye of a video camera.

Devenanzio hopes the show won’t edit him into a total party boy. He says he’s also a guy with a good heart who tries to do what’s right.

As for the fame that waits just around the corner?

“It’s weird to think about now,” Devenanzio says. “The show hasn’t come out yet, and here I am, hanging out with my buddies, just living this solitary life.

“And in a week, it’s never going to be like that again.”

SUMMER ZERVOS

Age: 31

Residence: Huntington Beach

Experience: Started as a restaurant salad girl at 13, now owns Sunny’s Restaurant in Huntington Beach.

Summer Zervos paid little attention to “The Apprentice” before she auditioned for it last year, but she still felt she knew what to expect.

“When you work at a restaurant, the people who sit at the counter every day, they know everything about everything,” Zervos says.

“They watched the show and so we’d talk about what we’d do in those kinds of situations.”

She auditioned in Huntington Beach last spring and after many rounds of interviews was chosen for the show.

“Getting on the show is a full-time job, and so when you’re picked, you think, ‘Gosh, it was hard to get there, what’s next?'” Zervos says.

“It’s extremely intense,” Zervos says of the experience. “Hard work. I learned a lot about myself and how you respond when the pressure’s on. I left admiring Donald Trump a lot more than when I arrived.”

Hard work and hard times are things she feels she shares with Trump.

Her family had always worked in the restaurant industry, and most still do today, even after business woes caused them to lose their restaurants and to have to start over from scratch.

“They went bankrupt at the same time that Donald Trump did,” Zervos says. “He came out a little better than we did.”

She loves her restaurant, but the opportunity of “The Apprentice” seemed a once-in-a-lifetime shot.

“Here’s a show that provides an opportunity to work for several companies and see how you’d do,” Zervos says. “A pretty exciting opportunity, wouldn’t you say?”

MOANA DIXON

Age: 27

Residence: San Clemente and Los Angeles

Experience: Most recently worked as a distribution manager for Skyy Spirits.

Moana Dixon didn’t go looking for “The Bachelor” – it found her, according to her stepmom, Virginia Dixon.

“They found her on Myspace.com and they had her come in for an interview,” Virginia says of Moana’s online journal.

“She called me and said, ‘Mom, what do you think?'” Virginia says. “She knew what I thought – you couldn’t pay me enough.”

But Moana was at a point of transition in her life – everything from her theology and philosophy to her job was in flux – and though she tried to back out of the show at the last minute, in the end she agreed to go.

“I said, ‘Just don’t let this define you, because you have an identity,'” Virginia says.

The six weeks Moana spent in Paris with bachelor Travis Stork were life-changing.

“It’s a bubble they create, and they control everything,” she says of the show. “She was very, very surprised by the intensity involved in the situation.

“And she also didn’t plan on – it’s obvious – falling in love with him. She didn’t plan on everything that happened.”

In one episode, Moana and Travis visited San Clemente to meet her family, a show that created buzz for the tough questions her parents asked him.

“What was unfortunate was there was over 15 hours of filming and seven minutes on the show,” Virginia says. “And yes, when your daughter brings someone home and says, ‘I’m in love with this person and there’s potential for a courtship that might lead to marriage,’ we asked tough questions.

“But he’s a great guy and we totally hit it off. He’s her dad, I can tell you that. A girl looks for her dad and it’s the way it is.”

Contact the writer: (714) 796-7787 or plarsen@ocregister.com