Paula Patton

Paula Patton was the daughter of Joyce (Vanraden) and Charles Patton. Her father is African-American, and her mother is caucasian and is of German, English and Dutch roots. While growing up, her family lived right in front of the 20th Century Fox lot. She was a fervent film enthusiast since her early years. Her mother who was a school teacher as well as her father was a lawyer and were both avid film fans. Paula says that she used to escape from her mother by pretending to be someone else while young. It's not a surprise that she participated in Hamilton Magnet Arts High School's high school plays. Her favorite role was that of "Abigail" in "The Crucible". After having graduated from the University of Southern California's summer school, she studied film and was then given a 3 month assignment to create documentaries for PBS. She was later hired as a production assistant on documentaries on TV and Howie Mandel's talk show. In the following time she was able to produce documentary segments for Medical Diaries 2000 on Discovery Health Channel. Paula says she is passionate about the work she does, but her dream was still the same. She began acting classes before deciding to switch gears and become an actor. Her career was nearly instant success performing major roles in Hitch (2005), Idlewild (2006) and Idlewild (2006), and the lead female role in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel.