Paula Patton

Paula Patton was born in Los Angeles, California, to Joyce (Vanraden) and Charles Patton. Her father is African-American, while her mother is caucasian and is of German, English and Dutch origins. Her family lived directly next to the 20th Century Fox lot as she grew older, and she was a major movie buff from her very early years. Her mother was a teacher , and her father was an attorney. Paula states that as a girl she would escape by "pretending to pretend to be someone else" therefore it wasn't surprising that she was a part-time actress in high school plays at Hamilton Magnet Arts High School. Her most loved role was "Abigail" from "The Crucible". After finishing the University of Southern California's summer program, she took film classes and was given a 3-month project to make documentaries for PBS. She was later hired as a production assistant on TV documentaries and Howie Mandel's talk-show. Later, she made documentary segments for Medical Diaries (2000 on Discovery Health Channel). Paula says that she loved the work she was doing but her ambitions remains the same as it was when she was younger, so she began taking acting classes and switched gears to become an actor. She became a star almost immediately and was in Hitch (2006), Idlewild (2006) and Deja Vu (2006) as the female character.