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. She has German, English, Dutch and English family ancestry. Her family lived right next to the 20th Century Fox lot as she grew up, and she was an avid fan of movies from her very early years. Her mom was a teacher and her father worked as an attorney. Paula claims that she used to hide from her mother by pretending to be someone else while when she was a kid. It's not a surprise that she was involved in Hamilton Magnet Arts High School's high school productions. Her favorite character was one played by Abigail in "The Crucible". She continued her studies at University of Southern California, where she completed a program for summers in film. The program was a success, and she was awarded a 3-month assignment to make documentaries for PBS. The result was that she began working as a production assistant on television documentaries, as well as on Howie Mandel's talk show. After a time she was hired to produce documentary segments on Medical Diaries 2000 on Discovery Health Channel. Paula now professes that she was happy with what she was doing however, her goal remains the same as it was when she was younger, and she began acting classes and then shifted gears and became a performer. She became a remarkably successful performer and, within three years, had played parts in major features, Hitch (2005) and Idlewild (2006) and the female role in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel Washington.