Paula Patton

Paula Patton was born in Los Angeles, California, to Joyce (Vanraden) and Charles Patton. Her father is African-American and her mother is caucasian, has German, English, and Dutch roots. Her family lived across the street from the 20th Century Fox lot as she was growing-up, and she was a huge enthusiast of films from her earliest days. Her mother, a schoolteacher as well as her father was a lawyer and were both avid film fans. Paula stated that she had tried to escape when she was an infant by "pretending" to be someone other than herself. So it's not a surprise that she participated in Hamilton Magnet Arts High School performances. Her favorite character was that of "Abigail" in "The Crucible". She continued her studies at University of Southern California, where she completed a course in film. In that time, she was awarded a three-month task to create documentaries on PBS. She was then hired as a production assistant for TV documentaries and Howie Mandel's talk show. After a few months she was able produce documentary segments on Medical Diaries 2000 on Discovery Health Channel. Paula says she is passionate about what she's doing, but her goals were the same. She took acting classes and switched gears to be an actor. She became a remarkably successful performer and within three years, she was playing roles in major films, Hitch (2005) and Idlewild (2006) and also the female leading lady in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel Washington.