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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!

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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

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    Finding Your Roots Season 12 Episode 4 - The Road We Took
    10.0/10(34 votes)

    #1 - The Road We Took

    S12:E4

    Henry Louis Gates, Jr. introduces actor Lizzie Caplan and comedian Hasan Minhaj to ancestors whose brave decisions forever reshaped their families.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  2. Finding Your Roots Season 12 Episode 8 - Artistic Roots
    9.5/10(36 votes)

    #2 - Artistic Roots

    S12:E8

    Henry Louis Gates, Jr. maps the roots of director Spike Lee and actor Kristin Chenoweth, meeting ancestors whose creativity built their families.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  3. Finding Your Roots Season 9 Episode 1 - Hidden Kin
    8.0/10(66 votes)

    #3 - Hidden Kin

    S9:E1

    Henry Louis Gates explores the remarkable roots of actors Edward Norton and Julia Roberts—using DNA analysis and genealogical detective work to travel generations into the past, tracing lineages that run from Northern Europe to the American South. Along the way, Norton and Roberts reimagine their family stories and discover their hidden connections to our nation’s history—and each other.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  4. Finding Your Roots Season 12 Episode 6 - Westward Bound
    6.8/10(34 votes)

    #4 - Westward Bound

    S12:E6

    Henry Louis Gates, Jr. maps the roots of talk show host Sara Haines and playwright Tracy Letts from the American west to surprising places back east.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  5. Finding Your Roots Season 2 Episode 1 - In Search of our Fathers
    6.0/10(48 votes)

    #5 - In Search of our Fathers

    S2:E1

    Three famous guests — Stephen King, Gloria Reuben and Courtney B. Vance — know almost nothing about their fathers’ histories.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  6. Finding Your Roots Season 2 Episode 3 - Our American Storytellers
    6.0/10(46 votes)

    #6 - Our American Storytellers

    S2:E3

    Ken Burns learns that his Southern ancestors include Confederate soldiers and a slave owner; Anderson Cooper learns that an ancestor on his father's side was killed by one of his slaves; and Anna Deavere Smith learns about her great-grandfather, who was a free black man and former conductor on the Underground Railroad.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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    7. Trending NowTRENDING NOW

    The 20 WORST Episodes of Finding Your Roots

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  7. Finding Your Roots Season 2 Episode 4 - Roots of Freedom
    6.0/10(39 votes)

    #7 - Roots of Freedom

    S2:E4

    Actor Ben Affleck discovers his mother's past as a Freedom Rider in 1964, NAACP President Ben Jealous learns how far his great-grandfather would go to keep his family whole, and actress Khandi Alexander learns about her grandfather's death. This episode is not available from pbs because actor Ben Affleck had persuaded Gates to omit information about his slave-owning ancestors. In the investigation, PBS said that producers violated network standards by letting Mr. Affleck have “improper influence” and “by failing to inform PBS or WNET of Mr. Affleck’s efforts to affect program content.”

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. Finding Your Roots Season 12 Episode 2 - Great Migrations
    5.5/10(33 votes)

    #8 - Great Migrations

    S12:E2

    Henry Louis Gates, Jr. introduces rapper Wiz Khalifa and actor Sanaa Lathan to ancestors who left the American South, boldly breaking racial barriers.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. Finding Your Roots Season 11 Episode 1 - Larger Than Life
    1.0/10(45 votes)

    #9 - Larger Than Life

    S11:E1

    Research into the ancestry of singer Lea Salonga and actress Amanda Seyfried reveals relatives who survived heart-wrenching ordeals.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  10. Finding Your Roots Season 11 Episode 2 - La Famiglia
    1.0/10(34 votes)

    #10 - La Famiglia

    S11:E2

    Exploring the Italian roots of television host Joy Behar and actor Michael Imperioli.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Finding Your Roots Season 11 Episode 3 - Stranger Than Fiction
    1.0/10(31 votes)

    #11 - Stranger Than Fiction

    S11:E3

    Traveling across China and the American South to reveal the ancestry of novelist Amy Tan and poet Rita Dove.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  12. Finding Your Roots Season 11 Episode 4 - Dreamers One and All
    1.0/10(41 votes)

    #12 - Dreamers One and All

    S11:E4

    Exploring the ancestry of actress Sharon Stone and model Chrissy Teigen includes travelling across Europe and Thailand.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  13. Finding Your Roots Season 12 Episode 1 - American Dreams
    1.0/10(41 votes)

    #13 - American Dreams

    S12:E1

    America Ferrera and Darren Criss uncover their immigrant roots.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  14. Finding Your Roots Season 12 Episode 3 - Caribbean Roots
    1.0/10(30 votes)

    #14 - Caribbean Roots

    S12:E3

    Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the Caribbean roots of actors Liza Colón-Zayas and Delroy Lindo—meeting ancestors who took enormous risks.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  15. Finding Your Roots Season 12 Episode 5 - Love & Basketball
    1.0/10(29 votes)

    #15 - Love & Basketball

    S12:E5

    Henry Louis Gates, Jr. maps the family trees of basketball stars Brittney Griner and Chris Paul—uncovering ancestors who had extraordinary talents.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  16. Finding Your Roots Season 1 Episode 1 - Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr.
    0.0/10(66 votes)

    #16 - Branford Marsalis and Harry Connick, Jr.

    S1:E1

    Their European immigrant ancestors blazed unconventional trails in America, from capturing British ships for the American Revolution to crossing racial barriers in slave-era Louisiana. Generations later, as children growing up in New Orleans, Harry Connick, Jr. and Branford Marsalis found a deep and abiding friendship through their common love of jazz and of the city itself. In this hour, we trace the turbulent and contradictory history of the city of New Orleans through the family stories of these two fascinating men.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  17. Finding Your Roots Season 1 Episode 2 - John Lewis and Cory Booker
    0.0/10(70 votes)

    #17 - John Lewis and Cory Booker

    S1:E2

    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:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  18. Finding Your Roots Season 1 Episode 3 - Barbara Walters and Geoffrey Canada
    0.0/10(53 votes)

    #18 - Barbara Walters and Geoffrey Canada

    S1:E3

    What's in a name? Well, a lot, at least when it comes to piecing together your family history. For former slaves, choosing a last name was one of their first acts of freedom. For Jewish immigrants, it was a way to fit in their new country. Whatever the reason for a name change, it can make the process of learning about one's ancestors difficult, if not impossible. In this episode, we unearth missing links in the family histories of media legend Barbara Walters and educational superstar Geoffrey Canada. Walters did not know her father's real last name. Canada did not know the name of his grandfather. Both of them had been unable to access their history... until now.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  19. Finding Your Roots Season 1 Episode 4 - Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon
    0.0/10(63 votes)

    #19 - Kyra Sedgwick and Kevin Bacon

    S1:E4

    What do Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick have in common? They are both famous actors and both descend from prominent American families that have been in this country since its inception. But they share something else, too: both had ancestors who were early opponents of slavery. Bacon's Quaker ancestors repudiated slavery long before the rest of the country, in 1780. And Sedgwick's ancestor Theodore Sedgwick argued the freedom case of Elizabeth Freeman, also known as "Mumbet," in 1781 -- which helped bring an end to slavery in Massachusetts. We reveal this fact - and many others - to Sedgwick and Bacon in this episode, and learn quite a bit about slavery in the North in the process.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. Finding Your Roots Season 1 Episode 5 - Rick Warren, Angela Buchdahl and Yasir Qadhi
    0.0/10(43 votes)

    #20 - Rick Warren, Angela Buchdahl and Yasir Qadhi

    S1:E5

    Pastor Rick Warren, Rabbi Angela Buchdahl and Sheik Yasir Qadhi are of three different faiths, all with complex family histories that profoundly shaped their religious beliefs. Our research of their roots unearthed a story about the spiritual foundations of this country, an unrelenting struggle to achieve our ideal of religious freedom and tolerance, but also the difficulties sometimes of holding onto one's faith and still feeling like an "authentic" American.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. Finding Your Roots Season 1 Episode 6 - Robert Downey, Jr. and Maggie Gyllenhaal
    0.0/10(55 votes)

    #21 - Robert Downey, Jr. and Maggie Gyllenhaal

    S1:E6

    Many American descend from a dense soups of European ethnicities; we could call them mutts, with ancestral roots across every country in Europe. Actors Robert Downey, Jr. and Maggie Gyllenhaal are textbook examples of Americans with a rich tapestry of European immigrant stories making up their family trees. We delve in to their deep American roots in early colonial communities, and we meet their Eastern European Jewish ancestors, who share almost identical migration stories From the Mayflower to Ellis Island, we journey through centuries of immigration that shaped and built our melting pot nation.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  22. Finding Your Roots Season 1 Episode 7 - Samuel L. Jackson, Condoleezza Rice and Ruth Simmons
    0.0/10(50 votes)

    #22 - Samuel L. Jackson, Condoleezza Rice and Ruth Simmons

    S1:E7

    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:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Finding Your Roots Season 1 Episode 8 - Martha Stewart, Margaret Cho and Sanjay Gupta
    0.0/10(44 votes)

    #23 - Martha Stewart, Margaret Cho and Sanjay Gupta

    S1:E8

    The three guests in this episode are all children of first- or second-generation immigrants and share the peculiar burdens of that heritage. In an episode that crisscrosses the planet, from India to Korea to Poland, catch a glimpse of three distinct yet oddly overlapping experiences of families leaving their homes and becoming American.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  24. Finding Your Roots Season 1 Episode 9 - John Legend and Wanda Sykes
    0.0/10(52 votes)

    #24 - John Legend and Wanda Sykes

    S1:E9

    Most African Americans struggle to trace their ancestors beyond Emancipation; slavery erased names and family ties with brutal efficiency. But what about the descendants of the handful of free black people who evaded bondage during that terrible time? Musician John Legend and comedian Wanda Sykes discover the extraordinary stories of the free black ancestors they never knew about, while Professor Gates himself and his 98-year-old friend Margarett Cooper delve into the mysteries shrouding the free people of color in their family trees.

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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  25. Finding Your Roots Season 1 Episode 10 - Adrian Grenier, Michelle Rodriguez and Linda Chavez
    0.0/10(43 votes)

    #25 - Adrian Grenier, Michelle Rodriguez and Linda Chavez

    S1:E10

    Michelle Rodriguez, Adrian Grenier and Linda Chavez all share Spanish colonial roots, yet each views their own identity very differently. In this episode we ask what it means to be Hispanic-and find that the answer lies in the tangled histories of European, Native American and African peoples. Crisscrossing Mexico, Spain, the Caribbean, and the Southwest, Professor Gates reveals stories of ancestral Conquistadors, Indian rebels, and "Crypto-Jews" (Spanish Jews who converted to Catholicism to survive the Inquisition, yet continued to practice their religion ...

    Director:Unknown
    Writer:Unknown

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Best Episodes Summary

"The Road We Took" is the best rated episode of "Finding Your Roots". It scored 10/10 based on 34 votes. Directed by Unknown and written by Unknown, it aired on 1/27/2026. This episode scored 0.5 points higher than the second highest rated, "Artistic Roots".