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, has German, English, and Dutch heritage. Her family lived on the same street as the 20th Century Fox lot when she was growing up , and she was a fan of movies in her early days. Her mother, who appreciated good films was a teacher, as was her father, an attorney. Paula stated that she had tried to get away as an infant by "pretending" to become someone else. So it's not a surprise that she appeared in Hamilton Magnet Arts High School performances. Her favorite character was one played by Abigail in "The Crucible". However, she went on to take a course in film at the University of Southern California in the summer program and received a three-month contract to create documentary films for PBS. The result was that she began working as a production assistant on documentary films on TV, as well as on Howie Mandel's talk show. Her career progressed to producing documentary segments for Medical Diaries (2000) airing on Discovery Health Channel. Paula states she loves what she's doing, however her goal was the same. She studied acting before deciding to switch gears and become an actor. She was almost instantly successful performing major roles in Hitch (2005), Idlewild (2006) and Idlewild (2006), as well as the lead female role in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel.