Paula Patton

Paula Patton is the daughter of Joyce (Vanraden), Patton, and Charles Patton. Her father is African-American, while her mother is caucasian and has German, English and Dutch ancestry. Her family lived directly across the street from the 20th Century Fox lot as she grew up and she was an avid film buff since the beginning of her life. Her mother, who also enjoyed good films taught in a school, and her father was an attorney. Paula claims that when she was an adult she would escape by "pretending to appear to be someone else" and it shouldn't come as a surprise that she acted in plays for high school at Hamilton Magnet Arts High School. Her favorite character was "Abigail" from "The Crucible". She continued her studies at University of Southern California, where she completed a summer program in film. It was during this time that she was awarded a 3-month task to create documentaries on PBS. Then she was employed as a production assistant for documentaries for television and Howie Mandel's talk-show. After a few months, she was able to make documentary segments for Medical Diaries 2000 on Discovery Health Channel. Paula says she loves her work, but she is still aspiring to be an actor. Her career was nearly instant success and was featured in major roles in Hitch (2005), Idlewild (2006) and also the lead female role in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel.