Episode 1
Larger Than Life
1.0 / 10
Research into the ancestry of singer Lea Salonga and actress Amanda Seyfried reveals relatives who survived heart-wrenching ordeals.
Where to watch Finding Your Roots
TV series
Finding Your Roots
2012TV-PG12 seasons6.5 / 10
Noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has been helping people discover long-lost relatives hidden for generations within the branches of their family trees. Professor Gates utilizes a team of genealogists to reconstruct the paper trail left behind by our ancestors and the world’s leading geneticists to decode our DNA and help us travel thousands of years into the past to discover the origins of our earliest forebears.
Availability
Not streaming in United States
Finding Your Roots premiered March 24, 2012. We don't have a confirmed streaming, rental or purchase option yet.
Synopsis
Noted Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has been helping people discover long-lost relatives hidden for generations within the branches of their family trees. Professor Gates utilizes a team of genealogists to reconstruct the paper trail left behind by our ancestors and the world’s leading geneticists to decode our DNA and help us travel thousands of years into the past to discover the origins of our earliest forebears.
Season 11 episodes
Choose an episode, then use the watch options above for the show.
Episode 2
La Famiglia
1.0 / 10
Exploring the Italian roots of television host Joy Behar and actor Michael Imperioli.
Where to watch Finding Your RootsEpisode 3
Stranger Than Fiction
1.0 / 10
Traveling across China and the American South to reveal the ancestry of novelist Amy Tan and poet Rita Dove.
Where to watch Finding Your RootsEpisode 4
Dreamers One and All
1.0 / 10
Exploring the ancestry of actress Sharon Stone and model Chrissy Teigen includes travelling across Europe and Thailand.
Where to watch Finding Your RootsEpisode 5
Family Recipes
Exploring the ancestry of chefs José Andrés and Sean Sherman.
Where to watch Finding Your RootsEpisode 6
Latin Roots
Tracing the family trees of musician Rubén Blades and journalist Natalie Morales.
Where to watch Finding Your RootsEpisode 7
The Ties That Bind
Actors Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard learn about their family histories, which includes stories of soldiers, settlers and criminals.
Where to watch Finding Your RootsEpisode 8
The Butterfly Effect
Actresses Debra Messing and Melanie Lynskey explore the stories of their ancestors whose bold decisions reshaped their families.
Where to watch Finding Your RootsEpisode 9
Moving on Up
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. meets Sheryl Lee Ralph and Lonnie Bunch - two African Americans trace their ancestors, who overcame slavery and traveled from southern plantations to northern cities, forging prosperous families despite adversity.
Where to watch Finding Your RootsEpisode 10
Finding My Roots
Family mysteries: actor Laurence Fishburne and scholar Henry Lewis Gates, Jr. peer into their mysterious family roots using DNA evidence to track down lost family members and their histories.
Where to watch Finding Your RootsEpisode information updated Jul 23, 2026
Available now in United States
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More about Finding Your Roots
Cast
Henry Louis Gates, Jr.Self - Host
Derek JeterSelf
Anderson CooperSelf
Tom ColicchioSelf
Angela BassettSelf
Valerie JarrettSelf
Alan DershowitzSelf
Tony KushnerSelfCredits
- Written by
- Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Production details
- Status
- Returning Series
- Series type
- Documentary
- Episodes
- 126
- Original language
- English
Networks & production
PBSUnited States- Kunhardt McGee Productions
Ark MediaUnited States- Inkwell FilmsUnited States
Themes
ancestrycelebritydnagenealogy