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 resided across the street from the 20th Century Fox lot when she was growing up and she was a fan of movies in her early age. Her mother who was a school teacher, and her dad, 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 be someone else" so it was not a surprise that she acted in high school plays at Hamilton Magnet Arts High School. Her most beloved role was of "Abigail" in "The Crucible". After having graduated from the University of Southern California's summer camp, she took film classes and was assigned a three-month assignment to create documentaries on PBS. This meant that she was able to serve as a production associate in television documentaries as well as on Howie Mandel’s talk show. Then she began producing documentaries for Medical Diaries (2000) airing on Discovery Health Channel. Paula claims she loves the work she does, but her ambition was the same. She began acting classes and then switched to becoming a performer. She was almost immediately successful and was featured in major roles in Hitch (2005), Idlewild (2006) and also the lead female character in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel.