Paula Patton

Paula Patton was the daughter of Joyce (Vanraden) and Charles Patton. Her father is African-American, and her mother is caucasian and is of German, English and Dutch ancestry. When she was growing up and her family lived in front of the 20th Century Fox lot. She was a fervent movie enthusiast from childhood. Her mother, also liked good movies, was a schoolteacher, and her father was an attorney. Paula says that she used to escape from her mother by pretending to be a different person as young. It is not surprising that she took part in Hamilton Magnet Arts High School's high school plays. Her most beloved role was one played by Abigail in "The Crucible". After finishing the University of Southern California's summer school, she studied film and was assigned a three-month project to make documentaries for PBS. The result was that she began working as a production assistant in TV documentariesand for Howie Mandel's talk show. In the following time she was able to make documentary segments for Medical Diaries 2000 on Discovery Health Channel. Paula says that she enjoyed her work, but her ambitions was still the same as when she was small so she learned acting and changed gears to become a performer. She was almost instantly successful and was featured in major roles in Hitch (2005), Idlewild (2006), as well as the leading female character in Deja Vu (2006) opposite Denzel.