Paula Patton

Paula Patton was born in Los Angeles, California, to Joyce (Vanraden) and Charles Patton. Her father is African-American , and her mother, who is caucasian, has German, English, and Dutch her ancestry. Her family lived next to the 20th Century Fox lot as she was growing-up, and she was a huge enthusiast of films from her early days. Her mother was a teacher , and her father worked as an attorney. Paula claims that when she was young, she would try to escape from the world by "pretending to pretend to be someone else" which is why it came as a surprise that she acted in high school plays at Hamilton Magnet Arts High School. Her favorite role was "Abigail" from "The Crucible". In the end, she chose to take a course in film at the University of Southern California in a summer program, and was awarded a three-month project to make documentaries for PBS. Then, she was hired as a production assistant for television documentaries as well as Howie Mandel's talk-show. Later, she made documentaries for Medical Diaries (2000 on Discovery Health Channel). Paula states she loves her work however her goal was the same. She began acting classes before deciding to switch gears and become an actor. She became a huge hit performing major roles in Hitch (2005), Idlewild (2006), as well as the lead female character in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel.