Paula Patton

Paula Patton was born in Los Angeles, California, to Joyce (Vanraden) and Charles Patton. Her father is African-American . her mother who is caucasian is of German, English, and Dutch roots. When she was growing up in the area, her family lived close to the 20th Century Fox lot. She was an avid movie enthusiast from childhood. Her mother, a schoolteacher as well as her father, a lawyer, were both avid film fans. Paula says that as young, she would try to escape by "pretending to pretend to be someone else" therefore it wasn't the case that she appeared in plays for high school at Hamilton Magnet Arts High School. Her most loved role was one of Abigail in "The Crucible". After graduation from the University Southern California's summer program she studied film and was offered a three-month project to make documentaries for PBS. The result was that she was hired as a production assistant for documentaries on TV and also on Howie Mandel's talk show. After a while she was able produce documentary segments for Medical Diaries 2000 on Discovery Health Channel. Paula declares she loves what she's doing, however her goal was the same. She took acting classes and changed gears to become a performer. She was almost immediately successful and within three years, she had acted in part in two major feature films: Hitch (2005) and Idlewild (2006) as well as the female character in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel Washington.