Series / Finding Your Roots

"I'm Henry Louis Gates Jr. Welcome to Finding Your Roots. In this episode..."

Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr. is a Documentary series hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. that has various celebrities explore their family trees and the surprises they find in their family trees.

The show airs on PBS and helps show the context of the period any celebrities' ancestors were living in.

Featured Guests

Season One

• Branfod Maralis and Harry Connick Jr.
• John Lewis and Cory Booker
• Barbara Walters and Geoffrey Canada
• Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon
• Rick Warren, Angela Buchdahl, and Yasir Qadhi
• Robert Downey Jr. and Maggie Gyllenhaal
• Samuel L. Jackson, Condoleezza Rice, and Ruth Simmons
• Martha Stewart, Margaret Cho, and Sanjay Gupta
• John Legend and Wanda Sykes
• Michelle Rodriguez, Adrian Grenier, and Linda Chavez

Season Two

• Stephen King, Gloria Reuben, and Courtney B. Vance
• Derek Jeter, Billie Jean King, and Rebecca Lobo
• Ken Burns, Anderson Cooper, Anna Deavere Smith
• Ben Affleck, Khandi Alexander, and Benjamin Jealous
• Tom Colicchio, Valerie Jarrett, and Nas
• Alan Dershowitz, Carole King, and Tony Kushner
• Deepak Chopra, Sally Field, and Sting
• Tina Fey, George Stephanopoulos, and David Sedaris
• Jessica Alba and Deval Patrick (also features Gates' relationship with Wilmore Mail)

Season Three

• Donna Brazile, Kara Walker, and Ty Burrell
• Soledad O Brien, Bill O'Reilly, and Bill Maher
• Maya Rudolph, Shonda Rhimes, and Keenen Ivory Wayans
• Jimmy Kimmel, Norman Lear, and Bill Hader
• Richard Branson, Maya Lin, and Frank Gehry
• Patricia Arquette, Julianne Moore, and John McCain
• Sean Combs and LL Cool J
• Neil Patrick Harris, Gloria Steinem, and Sandra Cisneros
• Azar Nafisi, Lidia Bastianich, and Julianna Margulies
• Mia Farrow and Dustin Hoffman

Season Four

• Larry David and Bernie Sanders
• Christopher Walken, Carly Simon, and Fred Armisen
• Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen, and William H. Macy
• Ta-Nehisi Coates, Ava DuVernay, and Janet Mock
• Scarlett Johansson, Paul Rudd, and John Turturro
• Bryant Gumbel, Tonya Lewis Lee, and Suzanne Malveaux
• Lupita Nyong O, Carmelo Anthony, and Ana Navarro
• Téa Leoni and Gaby Hoffmann
• Questlove, Dr. Phil, and Charlayne Hunter-Gault
• Amy Schumer and Aziz Ansari

Season Five

• Andy Samberg and George R. R. Martin
• Felicity Huffman and Michael K. Williams
• Christiane Amanpour, Ann Curry, and Lisa Ling
• Marisa Tomei, Sheryl Sandberg, and Kal Penn
• S. Epatha Merkerson and Michael Strahan
• Tulsi Gabbard, Marco Rubio, and Paul Ryan
• Seth Meyers, Tig Notaro, and Sarah Silverman
• Laura Linney, Michael Moore, and Chloë Sevigny
• Alejandro González Iñárritu, Marina Abramovic, and Kehinde Wiley
• Joe Madison

Season Six

• Anjelica Huston and Isabella Rosselini
• Melissa McCarthy and Eric Stonestreet
• Sterling K. Brown, Sasheer Zamata, and Jon Batiste
• Queen Latifah and Jeffrey Wright
• Jeff Goldblum, Terry Gross, and Marc Maron
• Sigourney Weaver, Justina Machado, and Amy Ryan
• Francis Collins, Shirley Ann Jackson, and Harold E Varmus
• Diane Von Furstenberg, Narciso Rodriquez, Ru Paul
• Joe Madison
• Gayle King, Jordan Peele, and Issa Rae
• Nancy Pelosi, Norah O'Donnell, and Zac Posen

Season Seven

• Glenn Close and John Waters
• Andy Cohen and Nina Totenberg
• Jim Gaffigan and Jane Lynch
• Tony Shalhoub and Christopher Meloni
• Kasi Lemmons and Pharrell Williams
• Clint Black and Rosanne Cash

Season Eight

• Rebecca Hall and Lee Daniels
• Brittany Packnett Cunningham and Anita Hill
• David Chang and Raúl Esparza
• Pamela Adlon and Kathryn Hahn
• Melissa Villaseñor and Mario Lopez

Season Nine

• Edward Norton and Julia Roberts
• Claire Danes and Jeff Daniels

Tropes for the show:

• Asshole Victim: Anderson Cooper discovered that an ancestor of his was killed by one of his slaves and Cooper is more sympathetic to the slave than his ancestor.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Some of the guests ancestors dealt with hardships like either being enslaved, been in abusive relationships or were forced into a life of crime when they had no other options. Multiple Jewish guests ended up finding out that their ancestors perished in The Holocaust.
• Long-Lost Relative: Some of the guests find out they are related to each other like Larry David and Bernie Sanders finding out they are distant cousins. At least one person has turned out to be related to Gates himself.
• Tangled Family Tree: Several guests find out their family trees are filled with family members like cousins marrying cousins.

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