Paula Patton

Paula Patton was the daughter of Joyce (Vanraden), and Charles Patton. Her father is African-American and her mother is caucasian and is of German, English and Dutch heritage. Her family lived directly next to the 20th Century Fox lot as she grew older, and she was a huge film buff since her very early years. Her mother, who also loved good films also taught at a school as was her father, an attorney. Paula said that she attempted to escape when she was a young girl through "pretending" to be someone other than herself. It's no surprise that she participated in Hamilton Magnet Arts High School plays. Her favorite character was "Abigail" from "The Crucible". However, she went on to pursue a film degree at the University of Southern California in an internship program for summer, and won a 3-month assignment making documentary films for PBS. The result was that she began working as a production assistant on television documentaries, as well as on Howie Mandel's talk show. In the following years, she was a producer of documentary segments for Medical Diaries (2000 on Discovery Health Channel). Paula says she enjoys her work, but she dreams of becoming a performer. Her career was nearly instant success performing major roles in Hitch (2005), Idlewild (2006) as well as the leading female character in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel.