Paula Patton

Paula Patton was born in Los Angeles, California, to Joyce (Vanraden) and Charles Patton. Her father is African-American and her mother is caucasian and has German, English and Dutch origins. Her family lived on the same street as the 20th Century Fox lot when she was young and she was a big fan of films from her earliest age. Her mother, too, who enjoyed good films also taught at a school as was her father, a lawyer. Paula said that she attempted to get away as young girls by "pretending" to be someone other than herself. Therefore, it's no surprise that she appeared in Hamilton Magnet Arts High School plays. Her favorite role was "Abigail" from "The Crucible". She completed her studies at the University of Southern California, where she completed a summer course in film. The program was a success, and she was granted a three-month project to create documentaries for PBS. This led to her working as a production assistant for television documentaries, as well as for Howie Mandel's talk show. In the following time she was hired to produce documentary segments for Medical Diaries 2000 on Discovery Health Channel. Paula claims that she loved what she was doing however her goals remains the same as it was when she was a child, so she began taking acting classes and then shifted gears and became an actor. She was a star within a matter of days and was featured in Hitch (2006), Idlewild (2006) and Deja Vu (2006) as the female character.