Paula Patton

Paula Patton is the daughter of Joyce (Vanraden) Patton and Charles Patton. Her father is African-American . her mother who is caucasian, has German, English, and Dutch ancestry. Her family lived directly next to the 20th Century Fox lot as she grew older, and she was a huge movie buff from the beginning of her life. Her mother, who loved good films also taught at a school as was her father, a lawyer. Paula claimed that she tried to escape when she was an innocent child through "pretending" to become someone else. Therefore, it's no surprise that she was a part of Hamilton Magnet Arts High School performances. Her favorite role was "Abigail" from "The Crucible". After finishing the University of Southern California's summer program, she studied film and was given a 3-month assignment to create documentaries on PBS. This meant that she was able to serve as a production assistant in documentary films on TV as well as Howie Mandel’s talk show. Later, she made documentary segments for Medical Diaries (2000 on Discovery Health Channel). Paula admits she is happy with her work, but she is still aspiring to be a performer. She was almost instantly successful and was featured in major roles in Hitch (2005), Idlewild (2006) as well as the leading female character in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel.