Paula Patton

Paula Patton was born in Los Angeles, California, to Joyce (Vanraden) and Charles Patton. Her father is African-American, while her mother is caucasian and is of German, English and Dutch origins. While growing up in the area, her family lived close to the 20th Century Fox lot. She was a fervent movie buff from the time she was a child. Her mother, also appreciated good films was a teacher, as was her father, an attorney. Paula claimed that she tried to escape when she was young girls through "pretending" to become someone else. So it's not a surprise that she was a part of Hamilton Magnet Arts High School plays. Her favorite role was the one played by Abigail in "The Crucible". She completed her studies at the University of Southern California, where she completed a program for summers in film. It was during this time that she was given a three-month assignment to make documentaries for PBS. It led her to work as a production assistant for TV documentariesand 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 is passionate about what she's doing, but her ambition was the same. She began acting classes and changed gears to become a performer. She was a star within a matter of days and was featured in Hitch (2006), Idlewild (2006) and Deja Vu (2006) as the female lead.