Paula Patton

Paula Patton was the daughter of Joyce (Vanraden) and Charles Patton. Her father is African-American, while her mother is caucasian and is of German, English and Dutch roots. Her family lived right next to the 20th Century Fox lot as she grew up, and she was a major movie buff from the beginning of her life. Her mother, a teacher, and her dad as a lawyer were both avid film buffs. Paula states that as an adult she would escape from the world by "pretending to play a different character" which is why it came as surprising that she was a part-time actress in high school plays at Hamilton Magnet Arts High School. Her most loved role was "Abigail" from "The Crucible". After finishing the University of Southern California's summer program, she studied film and was offered a three-month assignment to create documentaries for PBS. The result was that she could work as a production assistant in documentaries on TV and also on Howie Mandel's talk show. In the following time, she was able to produce documentary segments on Medical Diaries 2000 on Discovery Health Channel. Paula says she enjoys what she does, but she has a longing to be an actor. She quickly became successful and, within three years of her debut, she had appeared in the lead roles in major movies, Hitch (2005) and Idlewild (2006) and was the female character in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel Washington.