Paula's family lived across the street from the 20th Century Fox lot when she was growing up and she was a fan of films from her earliest years. Her mother, who also appreciated good films, was a schoolteacher, and her father was a lawyer. Paula claims that as a girl she would escape by "pretending to be someone else" so it was not a surprise that she acted in high school plays at Hamilton Magnet Arts High School. Her favorite role was that of "Abigail" in "The Crucible". However, she went on to study film at the University of Southern California in a summer program, and won a 3-month assignment making documentaries for PBS. This led to her working as a production assistant for TV documentaries, and also for Howie Mandel's talk show. She progressed to actually producing documentary segments for Medical Diaries airing on Discovery Health Channel. Paula now professes that she liked what she was doing, but her dream remained the same as when she was small so she took acting lessons and shifted gears to become a performer. She was almost immediately successful and, within three years, had played parts in major features, Hitch and Idlewild and the female lead in Deja Vu opposite Denzel Washington.
Graduate of the Hamilton Magnet Arts High School in Los Angeles. Also attended the University of California at Berkeley and University of Southern California. Featured on the cover of husband Robin Thicke's first album, "A Beautiful World". Shot and directed two Super-8 dramatic shorts and has attended the University of Southern California's film school summer program. Daughter-in-law of Alan Thicke and Gloria Loring. Sister-in-law of Brennan Thicke.