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 roots. While growing up in the area, her family lived next to the 20th Century Fox lot. She was a huge movie enthusiast from childhood. Her mom was a school teacher and her father was an attorney. Paula admitted that she tried to escape when she was a young girl by "pretending" to pretend to be someone else than. Therefore, it's no surprise that she participated in Hamilton Magnet Arts High School performances. Her most loved role was that of "Abigail" in "The Crucible". After graduation from the University Southern California's summer program she pursued film studies and was then given a 3 month project to make documentaries for PBS. She was later hired as a production assistant for TV documentaries and Howie Mandel's talk show. Then she began producing documentaries for Medical Diaries (2000) airing on Discovery Health Channel. Paula claims she loves what she is doing but her dream was still the same. She began acting classes before deciding to switch gears and become a performer. She became a household name quickly and was featured in Hitch (2006), Idlewild (2006) and Deja Vu (2006) as the female lead.