Paula Patton

Paula Patton is the daughter of Joyce (Vanraden), Patton, and Charles Patton. Her father is African American and her mother is caucasian. She is of German, English, Dutch and English ancestry. Her family lived right next to the 20th Century Fox lot as she was growing-up, and she was a huge film buff since the beginning of her life. Her mother was a teacher and her father worked as an attorney. Paula states that as an teen she would get away by "pretending to pretend to be someone else" so it was not the case that she appeared in plays for high school at Hamilton Magnet Arts High School. Her favorite character was "Abigail" from "The Crucible". After finishing the University of Southern California's summer school, she studied film and was offered a three-month assignment to create documentaries for PBS. As a result, she was able to work as a production assistant on TV documentaries and on Howie Mandel’s talk show. She then began to produce documentaries for Medical Diaries (2000) airing on Discovery Health Channel. Paula admits she is happy with her work, but she is still aspiring to be an actor. She made headlines quickly and was featured in Hitch (2006), Idlewild (2006) as well as Deja Vu (2006) as the female leading lady.