Paula Patton

Paula Patton was the daughter of Joyce (Vanraden), and Charles Patton. Her father is African-American and her mother is caucasian and has German, English and Dutch origins. While growing up her family was located right across from the 20th Century Fox lot. She was a huge movie enthusiast from childhood. Her mother, a schoolteacher, and her dad who was a lawyer were both avid fans of films. Paula states that as a girl she would escape from the world by "pretending to pretend to be someone else" therefore it wasn't a surprise that she acted in high school plays at Hamilton Magnet Arts High School. Her most beloved role was one played by Abigail in "The Crucible". After having graduated from the University of Southern California's summer program, she studied film and was given a 3-month task to produce documentaries for PBS. In the end, she was able to work as a production assistant in documentary films on TV as well as Howie Mandel’s talk show. In the following years, she was a producer of documentaries for Medical Diaries (2000 on Discovery Health Channel). Paula says she loves what she does, but she is still aspiring to be an actor. She was almost immediately successful, playing major roles in Hitch (2005), Idlewild (2006) and Idlewild (2006), as well as the leading female character in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel.