Paula Patton

Paula Patton was born in Los Angeles, California, to Joyce (Vanraden) and Charles Patton. Her father is African-American, while her mother is caucasian and has German, English and Dutch roots. Her family lived directly next to the 20th Century Fox lot as she was growing-up, and she was a major enthusiast of films from her early days. Her mother was a teacher and her father was an attorney. Paula admitted that she tried to escape as a young girl through "pretending" to become someone else. Therefore, it's no surprise that she participated in Hamilton Magnet Arts High School plays. Her favorite character was "Abigail" from "The Crucible". She continued her studies at University of Southern California, where she completed a summer course in film. The program was a success, and she was awarded a three-month task to create documentaries on PBS. This led to her working as a production assistant in TV documentaries, and also for Howie Mandel's talk show. She progressed to actually producing documentary segments for Medical Diaries (2000) airing on Discovery Health Channel. Paula says she enjoys what she does, but she has a longing to be an actor. She became a huge hit and was featured in major roles in Hitch (2005), Idlewild (2006) and Idlewild (2006), and the lead female character in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel.