Paula Patton

Paula Patton was born in Los Angeles, California, to Joyce (Vanraden) and Charles Patton. Her father is African-American and her mother is caucasian and has German, English and Dutch ancestry. Her family lived just across the street from the 20th Century Fox lot as she was growing-up, and she was a huge enthusiast of films from her early days. Her mother, a schoolteacher as well as her father who was a lawyer were both avid movie buffs. Paula said that she attempted to escape when she was an innocent child by "pretending" to become someone else. So it is no surprise that she participated in Hamilton Magnet Arts High School performances. Her favorite character was that of "Abigail" in "The Crucible". In the end, she chose to study film at the University of Southern California in a summer program, and was awarded a three-month project to make documentaries for PBS. As a result, she was hired as a production associate in documentaries on TV and also on Howie Mandel's talk show. Her career progressed to producing documentary segments for Medical Diaries (2000) airing on Discovery Health Channel. Paula says she enjoys her job, however, she still dreams of being an actor. She became a remarkably successful performer and within three years, had played part in two major feature films: Hitch (2005) and Idlewild (2006) and was the female leading lady in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel Washington.