Paula Patton

Paula Patton is the daughter of Joyce (Vanraden), Patton, and Charles Patton. Her father is African American and her mother is caucasian is of German, English, and Dutch ancestry. Her family lived on the same street as the 20th Century Fox lot when she was growing up and she was a big fan of movies since her earliest days. Her mother, too, who enjoyed good films was a teacher, and her father was a lawyer. Paula claimed that she tried to escape as an innocent child by "pretending" to appear to be someone different from herself. So it is no surprise that she participated in Hamilton Magnet Arts High School productions. Her favorite role was the one played by Abigail in "The Crucible". But, she decided to study film at the University of Southern California in the summer program and won a 3-month assignment making documentaries for PBS. The result was that she was hired as a production assistant for documentary films on TV as well as Howie Mandel’s talk show. Later, she made documentaries for Medical Diaries (2000 on Discovery Health Channel). Paula says she loves her work, but she has a longing to be an actor. It was a quick success and within three years, she was playing the lead roles in major movies, Hitch (2005) and Idlewild (2006) as well as the female character in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel Washington.