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 is of German, English, and Dutch ancestry. Her family lived on the same street as the 20th Century Fox lot when she was young and she was a lover of movies since her earliest years. Her mother, who liked good movies, was a schoolteacher, and her father was a lawyer. Paula states that she would hide from her mother by pretending to be someone else while a child. It's not a surprise to learn that she was a part of Hamilton Magnet Arts High School's high school plays. Her favorite character was "Abigail" from "The Crucible". She completed her studies at the University of Southern California, where she completed a summer program in film. At the time, she was granted a three-month assignment to make documentaries for PBS. The result was that she could work as a production assistant on television documentaries as well as on Howie Mandel’s talk show. After a few months, she was able to produce documentary segments for Medical Diaries 2000 on Discovery Health Channel. Paula claims she loves the work she does, but her dream was still the same. She began acting classes and switched gears to be a performer. She was almost immediately successful performing major roles in Hitch (2005), Idlewild (2006) and Idlewild (2006), as well as the leading female role in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel.