Finding Your Roots

Clues About Lee Daniels’ Fun-Loving Side of the Family

“That’s why they’re so damn uppity.” An 1850 census reveals clues about Lee Daniel’s grandmother’s fun-loving, musical family and why he has always felt a special connection to them.

Clues About Lee Daniels’ Fun-Loving Side of the Family

1m 3s

  • The Butterfly Effect: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Butterfly Effect

    S11 E8 - 52m 10s

    Henry Louis Gates, Jr. introduces actors Debra Messing & Melanie Lynskey to ancestors who made bold decisions that forever reshaped their family trees. Moving from shtetls in Eastern Europe to a fruit stand in NY City to the wilds of New Zealand, Gates introduces his guests to relatives who took great risks, overcame enormous hardships—and unwittingly transformed the lives of their descendants.

  • The Ties That Bind: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    The Ties That Bind

    S11 E7 - 52m 10s

    Henry Louis Gates, Jr. meets actors Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard—a married couple who discover that their ancestors had some remarkable similarities. In stories that span continents and centuries, Gates introduces Kristen and Dax to the soldiers, settlers, and criminals who make up their roots, allowing his guests to understand themselves—and their families--as never before.

  • Latin Roots: asset-mezzanine-16x9

    Latin Roots

    S11 E6 - 52m 10s

    Henry Louis Gates, Jr. helps musician Rubén Blades & journalist Natalie Morales uncover their hidden roots in Latin America, revealing secrets that their ancestors went to great lengths to conceal. Traveling from Puerto Rico to Columbia to Brazil, Gates & his guests recover long-lost family stories—meet heroes and villains--and celebrate the virtue of accepting one’s relatives whoever they may be.

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