Paula Patton

Paula Patton was born in Los Angeles, California, to Joyce (Vanraden) and Charles Patton. Her father is African American and her mother, who is caucasian, has German, English, and Dutch ancestry. Her family lived just next to the 20th Century Fox lot as she was growing-up, and she was a big film buff since her early days. Her mother, a schoolteacher, and her dad who was a lawyer were both avid fans of films. Paula claims that when she was an teen she would get away from the world by "pretending to play a different character" therefore it wasn't the case that she appeared in plays for high school at Hamilton Magnet Arts High School. Her favorite character was that of "Abigail" in "The Crucible". She continued her studies at the University of Southern California, where she completed a summer course in film. At the time, she was granted a three-month assignment to make documentaries for PBS. This led to her working as a production assistant in documentary films on TV, as well as on Howie Mandel's talk show. Then she began producing documentary segments for Medical Diaries (2000) airing on Discovery Health Channel. Paula now professes that she was happy with what she was doing, however, her goal remained the same as when she was a child, and she began acting classes and changed gears to become an actor. She became a huge hit with her roles, including major ones in Hitch (2005), Idlewild (2006) as well as the lead female role in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel.