8.4/1035 votesLoading...#1 - Write My Name in the Book of Life
Season 7 Episode 5 - Aired 2/16/2021
Guests: Pharrell Williams and Kasi Lemmons. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. helps musician Pharrell Williams and filmmaker Kasi Lemmons uncover extraordinarily rare first-person accounts of their enslaved ancestors.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.4/1058 votesLoading...#2 - Secret Lives
Season 9 Episode 3 - Aired 1/17/2023
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. helps comedians Carol Burnett and Niecy Nash decode scandals hidden within their roots, exposing secrets that their ancestors concealed and celebrating the virtue of accepting one’s relatives—whoever they may be.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.4/1044 votesLoading...#3 - Fathers and Sons
Season 10 Episode 3 - Aired 1/16/2024
Actors LeVar Burton and Wes Studi, two men who grew up without their fathers, explore their family histories.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.3/1038 votesLoading...#4 - Family Reunions
Season 3 Episode 7 - Aired 2/16/2016
Uncover family mysteries about two legends of hip hop, Sean Combs and LL Cool J, through the use of DNA technology, which reveals information that shakes their very foundations.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.2/1043 votesLoading...#5 - Relatives We Never Knew We Had
Season 4 Episode 8 - Aired 11/21/2017
Guests: Gaby Hoffmann and Téa Leoni. Two guests whose lives have been shaped by family mysteries are introduced to biological ancestors they never knew they had thanks to genetic detective work.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.2/1063 votesLoading...#6 - Grandparents and Other Strangers
Season 5 Episode 1 - Aired 1/8/2019
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. helps actor Andy Samberg and author George R. R. Martin answer some family mysteries when DNA detective work uncovers new branches of their family trees. The DNA analysis upends family history and reveals new relatives.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.2/1043 votesLoading...#7 - Reporting on the Reporters
Season 5 Episode 3 - Aired 1/22/2019
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. shows journalists Christiane Amanpour, Ann Curry and Lisa Ling that the stories within their own family trees are every bit as compelling as the news stories they have been covering for the world.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.2/1042 votesLoading...#8 - Freedom Tales
Season 5 Episode 5 - Aired 2/5/2019
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. delves deep into the roots of two African-American guests, actor S. Epatha Merkerson and athlete and television personality Michael Strahan. Both discover unexpected stories that challenge assumptions about black history.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.2/1039 votesLoading...#9 - All in the Family
Season 5 Episode 10 - Aired 4/9/2019
The family stories of actor Ty Burrell, and radio host Joe Madison. Also a look at how a summer camp for children is using genetic genealogy to help young people better understand their burgeoning identities.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.1/1052 votesLoading...#10 - John Lewis and Cory Booker
Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 3/24/2012
In this episode, we feature two African American politicians from different generations and opposite backgrounds. John Lewis grew up in a sharecropping family in rural Georgia, while Cory Booker was raised in an affluent, all-white New Jersey suburb. Although both men have devoted their lives to the betterment of African-American people, neither of them knows much about their own ancestors. In this episode, we introduce Booker to his white great-grandfather, a man he never knew, and move Lewis to tears over the extraordinary ambitions and accomplishments of his slave ancestors..
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.1/1042 votesLoading...#11 - Samuel L. Jackson, Condoleezza Rice and Ruth Simmons
Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 4/29/2012
Samuel L. Jackson, Condoleezza Rice and Brown University President Ruth Simmons have each climbed to the pinnacle of their profession, yet each started life as a second class citizen in the Jim Crow south. In this episode we will use DNA to investigate family mysteries: where do they come from in Africa, and who are the white men in their family trees?
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.1/1039 votesLoading...
#12 - Tragedy + Time = Comedy
Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 1/26/2016
Uncover a history of tragedies and triumphs in the families of three of America’s funniest men–Jimmy Kimmel, Norman Lear and Bill Hader—as they learn how comedy truly has its place in all aspects of life.
Director: Hazel Gurland-Pooler
Writer: N/A
8.1/1054 votesLoading...#13 - Unfamiliar Kin
Season 4 Episode 2 - Aired 10/10/2017
Guests: Carly Simon, Christopher Walken, and more. In this episode, three guests each learn about a grandparent whose real identity and background had been a mystery to them. Along the way, two of them also discover that their close relatives were on the wrong side of history.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.1/1037 votesLoading...#14 - War Stories
Season 6 Episode 13 - Aired 11/10/2020
Guests: Kehinde Wiley, Julianne Moore, Bill Hader. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the roots of actor Julianne Moore, comedian Bill Hader, and painter Kehinde Wiley, revealing how their ancestors’ military service left an indelible mark both on their families and on their country. (S03E06 was also titled "War Stories." Kehinde Wiley originally appeared in S05E09. Julianne Moore originally appeared in S03E06. Bill Hader originally appeared in S03E04.)
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.1/1043 votesLoading...#15 - Hidden in the Genes
Season 8 Episode 1 - Aired 1/4/2022
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. helps Rebecca Hall and Lee Daniels solve family mysteries through DNA detective work, illuminating both history and their own identities.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.1/1057 votesLoading...#16 - Children of Exile
Season 8 Episode 2 - Aired 1/4/2022
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. welcomes Brittany Packnett Cunningham and Anita Hill, two guests who made profound sacrifices for social justice, and helps them discover the ancestors who made sacrifices for them.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.1/1042 votesLoading...#17 - Rising From the Ashes
Season 9 Episode 5 - Aired 1/31/2023
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. traces the roots of actors Brian Cox and Viola Davis, uncovering records from workhouses in Scotland and slave plantations in South Carolina that reveal individuals who battled to build a better life for their families.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.0/1044 votesLoading...#18 - In Search Of Freedom
Season 3 Episode 3 - Aired 1/19/2016
Learn how the ancestors of Maya Rudolph, Shonda Rhimes and Keenen Ivory Wayans struggled for freedom, and how each of these cultural trailblazers gain a new understanding of how they fit into this proud trajectory.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
- 8.0/1038 votesLoading...
#19 - War Stories
Season 3 Episode 6 - Aired 2/9/2016
Patricia Arquette, Senator John McCain, and Julianne Moore explore their genealogical heritage with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.0/1035 votesLoading...#20 - Maps of Stars
Season 3 Episode 10 - Aired 3/8/2016
Learn how Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow, who last shared the screen together in 1969, also share a history of tragic deaths in their families that played major roles in shaping future generations.
Director: Phil Bertelsen
Writer: Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
8.0/1067 votesLoading...#21 - The Impression
Season 4 Episode 1 - Aired 10/2/2017
Join Larry David and Bernie Sanders, who learn they have more in common than they thought.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.0/1048 votesLoading...#22 - Black Like Me
Season 4 Episode 6 - Aired 11/7/2017
Guests: Bryant Gumbel, Tonya Lewis-Lee and Suzanne Malveaux. Three African-American guests delve deep into their family trees, discovering unexpected stories that challenge our assumptions about black history.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.0/1042 votesLoading...#23 - Southern Roots
Season 4 Episode 9 - Aired 12/12/2017
Guests: Questlove, Dr. Phil and Charlayne Hunter-Gault. Three guests of disparate backgrounds dig into their Southern roots, where slavery and its aftermath shaped families both black and white.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.0/1027 votesLoading...#24 - The Eye of the Beholder
Season 5 Episode 9 - Aired 4/2/2019
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. shares the family histories of director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, iconoclastic performance artist Marina Abramović and painter Kehinde Wiley. These visionary artists find their identities challenged—and affirmed.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
8.0/1043 votesLoading...#25 - Homecomings
Season 6 Episode 3 - Aired 1/7/2020
Sterling K. Brown, Jon Batiste and Sasheer Zamata learn about the unexpected places their ancestors called home.
Director: N/A
Writer: N/A
The Best Episodes of Finding Your Roots
Every episode of Finding Your Roots ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Finding Your Roots!
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....
Genre:Documentary
Network:PBS
Best Episodes Summary
"Write My Name in the Book of Life" is the best rated episode of "Finding Your Roots". It scored 8.4/10 based on 35 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 2/16/2021. This episode scored 0.0 points higher than the second highest rated, "Secret Lives".