Paula Cale

Paula Cale, born Paula Korologos on June 2, 1970, in Great Falls, Virginia, is an American actress best known for her role as Joanie Hansen on the television series Providence.

Cale grew up in a politically prominent family. Her father, Tom C. Korologos, served as a Congressional liaison during the Nixon and Ford administrations, worked as a top Capitol Hill lobbyist, managed the confirmation of Donald Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense under President George W. Bush, and served as the US Ambassador to Belgium from 2004 to 2007. Her mother, Joy, was a homemaker and chairwoman of the Fairfax County, Virginia School Board, who died of brain cancer in 1997. Cale attended Langley High School and interned at the White House during the Reagan administration. After graduating in 1988, she spent one year at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where she studied to become a teacher, before transferring to The Theatre School at DePaul University in Chicago on a drama scholarship. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in acting from DePaul in 1993.

After completing her degree, Cale originated the role of Suzanne in the Steppenwolf Theatre production of Steve Martin's Picasso at the Lapin Agile in Chicago. She traveled with the production to Los Angeles in 1995, where Candice Bergen saw her perform and offered her the recurring role of McGovern, a reporter, on Murphy Brown. Around the same time, Cale appeared in two comedy series on different networks simultaneously: as a sassy waitress in Local Heroes and as the neurotic wife of Christopher Gartin's character in Buddies.

Cale subsequently moved to New York City to pursue stage work. In 1996, she appeared on Broadway in The Night of the Iguana, and also performed off-Broadway as Gilda Radner in Bunny, Bunny. Returning to Los Angeles, she guest-starred in two episodes of NBC's The Naked Truth as Téa Leoni's sister and appeared on Cybill as Cybill Sheridan's long-lost niece. Though she initially hesitated when asked to audition for the drama Providence, she ultimately took the role of Joanie Hansen, which became her most prominent television credit. Providence ran until 2002.

Following Providence, Cale played Dean Martin's first wife, Betty, in the television production Martin and Lewis, and appeared in the 2008 Lifetime television movie Living Proof. In 2014, she appeared alongside Jennifer Aniston in the film Cake, playing a character named Carol. In 2002, Cale disclosed to People Magazine that she has clinical depression.

Cale was married to folk musician Bennett Cale from 1995 to 1999, whose surname she adopted as her professional name. On July 29, 2006, she married Los Angeles screenwriter Michael Lisbe. She resides in Los Angeles, where she does volunteer work for her church.