Paula Patton

Paula Patton was born in Los Angeles, California, to Joyce (Vanraden) and Charles Patton. Her father is African-American . her mother who is caucasian is of German, English, and Dutch heritage. While growing up and her family lived across from the 20th Century Fox lot. She was an avid movie buff from the time she was a child. Her mother was a teacher and her father was an attorney. Paula states that as an teen she would get away by "pretending to be someone else" and it shouldn't come 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 graduating from the University of Southern California's summer program, she took film classes and was assigned a three-month task to produce documentaries for PBS. This led to her working as a production assistant on television documentaries, as well as for Howie Mandel's talk show. Later, she produced documentaries for Medical Diaries (2000 on Discovery Health Channel). Paula says she is passionate about her work but her dream was still the same. She studied acting and changed gears to become a performer. It was a quick success and, in just three years, she had acted in part in two major feature films: Hitch (2005) and Idlewild (2006) as well as the female leading lady in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel Washington.