Paula Patton

Paula Patton is the daughter of Joyce (Vanraden), Patton, and Charles Patton. Her father is African-American and her mother is caucasian and is of German, English and Dutch roots. Her family lived directly next to the 20th Century Fox lot as she grew up, and she was a big film buff since her earliest days. Her mother, who also liked good movies taught in a school, and her father was a lawyer. Paula admits she was able to get away from her mother by pretending to be someone else as when she was a kid. It's not too surprising that she participated in Hamilton Magnet Arts High School's high school dramas. Her most loved role was one played by Abigail in "The Crucible". After graduating from the University of Southern California's summer school, she took film classes and was then given a 3 month task to produce documentaries for PBS. This led to her working as a production assistant on documentary films on TV, as well as for Howie Mandel's talk show. Then she began producing documentary segments for Medical Diaries (2000) airing on Discovery Health Channel. Paula claims she loves what she is doing but her ambition was the same. She took acting classes and then switched to becoming a performer. She was almost instantly successful with her roles, including major ones in Hitch (2005), Idlewild (2006) and the lead female role in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel.