Paula Patton

Paula Patton was the daughter of Joyce (Vanraden) and Charles Patton. Her father is African American and her mother is caucasian. She has German, English, Dutch and English heritage. Her family lived just across the street from the 20th Century Fox lot as she grew up, and she was a huge fan of movies from the beginning of her life. Her mother who was a school teacher and her father, a lawyer, were both avid fans of films. Paula says that as young, she would try to escape by "pretending to be someone else" which is why it came as surprising that she was a part-time actress in high school plays at Hamilton Magnet Arts High School. Her favorite character was "Abigail" from "The Crucible". But, she decided 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. This led to her working as a production assistant for television documentaries, as well as for Howie Mandel's talk show. After a while she was hired to create documentary segments for Medical Diaries 2000 on Discovery Health Channel. Paula declares she loves what she's doing, but her dream was still the same. She took acting classes and switched gears to be an actor. She was almost instantly successful with her roles, including major ones in Hitch (2005), Idlewild (2006), as well as the lead female role in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel.