Henry Louis Gates, Jr. journeys with Erin Burnett, Amy Carlson and André Leon Talley, three guests from diverse backgrounds, as they meet the ancestors who laid the groundwork for their success.

Secrets encoded in their genomes challenge these guests’ ideas about their families’ histories and their identities today. This episode features Jessica Alba, Anderson Cooper, Valerie Jarrett, Governor Deval Patrick and more.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. helps actors Pamela Adlon and Kathryn Hahn explore scandals and secrets hidden within their roots, revealing truths that their ancestors went to great lengths to conceal—and celebrating the virtues of accepting one’s family members, whoever they may be.

Questlove, S. Epatha Merkerson and Ava DuVernay explore the unexpected places where their ancestors were scattered by slavery.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. retraces the ancestral journeys of David Chang and Raúl Esparza, whose families fled their homelands, leading them to find lost parts of themselves along the way.

Billie Jean King, Derek Jeter and Rebecca Lobo learn about their family histories. King discovers that her grandmother was an orphan; Derek Jeter investigates his ancestors' lives as slaves; and Lobo finds out that an ancestor was forced to flee Spain because of his democratic ideals.

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

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.

Tony Kushner learns how the Holocaust impacted his ancestors; Carole King delves into the origins of her family name; and Alan Dershowitz discovers that an Hassidic synagogue started by his great-grandfather played a secret role in World War II.

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.

Chef Tom Colicchio learns the hardships his family endured in Northern Italy; chef Ming Tsai traces his roots back 2,000 years; chef Aarón Sánchez learns his Mexican roots include Spaniards, Africans and Native Americans.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. helps John Leguizamo and Lena Waithe retrace the paths of their immigrant ancestors who crossed continents and countries under amazing circumstances.

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.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the roots of actor Jane Lynch and comedian Jim Gaffigan, revealing the Irish American experience through their families.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. maps the roots of musicians Lizzo and Flea—traveling across the globe to find stories of the ancestors who inspired their work.

Actresses Isabella Rossellini, Anjelica Huston and Mia Farrow explore their family histories, generations beyond their cinematic forebears.

Guests: Clint Black and Rosanne Cash. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. uncovers the remarkably diverse backgrounds of country music icons Clint Black and Rosanne Cash.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. uncovers the lost roots of actors Billy Crudup and Tamera Mowry-Housley, traveling back generations to recount significant events in history—from the American Revolution to the journey of the Mayflower—in a deeply personal way.

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

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. maps the family trees of pop icon Cyndi Lauper and actors Jamie Chung and Danny Trejo, exploring records in Italy, Korea, and Mexico to uncover ancestors whose stories were lost when their families immigrated to America.

Guests: Andy Cohen and Nina Totenberg. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. introduces Andy Cohen and Nina Totenberg to their survivor ancestors.

Guests: Nancy Pelosi, Norah O'Donnell, Zac Posen. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. helps Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, news anchor Norah O’Donnell and fashion designer Zac Posen explore their immigrant roots, retracing the journeys of their ancestors who arrived in the United States with little more than a dream--and revealing why that dream is still so inspiring today.

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.

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

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. uses DNA detective work to solve family mysteries for actor Joe Manganiello and football star Tony Gonzalez—uncovering close relatives whose names they’ve never heard and compelling each man to rethink his own identity.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the deep Mexican roots of talk show host Mario Lopez and comedian Melissa Villaseñor, uncovering ancestors stretching back to the 1500s. Weaving together stories of migratory farmers, Spanish Conquistadors and Native Americans, Gates conjures up personal histories of diverse, sometimes conflicting, elements.

Guests: Lupita Nyong’o, Lidia Bastianich, Scarlett Johansson. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. meets actors Scarlett Johansson and Lupita Nyong’o, and chef Lidia Bastianich — three women whose families crisscrossed the globe to escape oppression and find opportunity, leaving them with questions about their relatives who stayed behind. (Lupita Nyong’o originally appeared in S04E07. Lidia Bastianich originally appeared is S03E09. Scarlett Johansson originally appeared in S04E05.)

Guests: Téa Leoni, Joe Madison. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. uses DNA detective work to solve mysteries in the family trees of actor Téa Leoni, and radio host Joe Madison, introducing each of them to parents and grandparents whose names they’ve never heard before. (Téa Leoni originally appeared in S04E08. Joe Madison originally appeared in S05E10.)

Exploring the Jewish heritages of actor Jeff Goldblum, radio host Terry Gross and comic Marc Maron.

Deepak Chopra, Sally Field and Sting’s ancestry demonstrates the extraordinary influence of the British Empire during the 18th and early 19th century.

Guests: Scarlett Johansson, Paul Rudd and John Turturro. In this episode, three guests explore the tremendous challenges faced by their immigrant forebears.

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.

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.

Actor Bob Odenkirk and comic Iliza Shlesinger explore their family histories and learn about relatives who took great risks to overcome hardships.

Singer Sammy Hagar and actor Ed O'Neill uncover their roots and discover deep family secrets.

Actors Valerie Bertinelli and Brendan Fraser explore their family histories

The unexpected family trees of Queen Latifah and Jeffrey Wright challenge preconceptions about America's past.

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.”

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. introduces trail-blazing journalists Jim Acosta and Van Jones to the ancestors who blazed a trail for them, meeting runaway slaves and immigrant settlers who took enormous chances so that their descendants might thrive.

Guests: Gretchen Carlson and Don Lemon. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. examines how journalists Gretchen Carlson and Don Lemon were able to overcome biases in their careers, drawing parallels to relatives who met profound challenges of their own.

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 ...

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.

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.

Guests: Amy Schumer and more. Guests who have found fame mining their family stories for comedy learn about ancestors who overcame immense suffering.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the family stories of filmmaker Michael Moore and actors Laura Linney and Chloë Sevigny—three people whose distant ancestors overcame great hardships in ways that resonate with their lives today.

Discover how the ancestors of business mogul Richard Branson and architects Maya Lin and Frank Gehry took audacious risks to create opportunities, and how their luck, ingenuity and chutzpah was passed on to these three visionaries.

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.

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

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. accompanies Broadway stars Leslie Odom, Jr. and Nathan Lane as they meet a cast of inspiring ancestors hidden in the branches of their family trees.

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.

Patricia Arquette, Senator John McCain, and Julianne Moore explore their genealogical heritage with Henry Louis Gates, Jr.

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

Guests: Ted Danson, Mary Steenburgen and William H. Macy. Three mainstays of modern-day Hollywood discover family legacies that predate the United States itself.

Tina Fey, George Stephanopoulos and David Sedaris, three quintessential voices in American life, descend from ancestors that were part of the wave of Greek immigrants that flooded America’s shores in the early decades of the 20th century.

The family histories of Laura Linney, Lisa Ling and Soledad O'Brien reveal tricksters, scoundrels and criminals.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the roots of actor Michael Douglas & writer-director Lena Dunham. Both are the children of famous artists, but their family trees contain a cast of fascinating characters whose lives were forgotten—until now.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. shows comedians Seth Meyers, Tig Notaro and Sarah Silverman that their family trees are filled with people whose struggles laid the groundwork for their success. Gates also reveals to each one news of an unexpected DNA cousin.

Nas learns about his slave ancestors; Angela Bassett discovers that her family history includes an emancipation story; and Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser to President Obama, learns about the free people of color in her family's past

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.

Sterling K. Brown, Jon Batiste and Sasheer Zamata learn about the unexpected places their ancestors called home.

Guests: Gayle King, Jordan Peele, Issa Rae. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the family secrets of journalist Gayle King, film director Jordan Peele, and comedian Issa Rae, introducing them to ancestors who raise profound questions about the shape and meaning of their family trees.

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.

Tracing the family histories of scientists Harold Varmus, Francis Collins and Shirley Ann Jackson.

Guests: John Lithgow and Maria Hinojosa. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. traces ancestors of actor John Lithgow and journalist Maria Hinojosa who thrived in North America long before the birth of the United States.

Actors Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard learn about their family histories, which includes stories of soldiers, settlers and criminals.

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.

Guests: Audra MacDonald and Mandy Patinkin. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. investigates the family histories of Broadway stars Audra MacDonald and Mandy Patinkin, discovering ancestors whose struggles laid the groundwork for their success.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. reveals the unexpected family trees of activist Angela Y. Davis and statesman Jeh Johnson, using DNA and long-lost records to redefine notions of the black experience—and challenge preconceptions of America’s past.

Guests: Lupita Nyong’o, Carmelo Anthony and Ana Navarro. Three guests explore how their family trees were shaped by political turmoil and violence, discovering sometimes unexpected ancestry along the way.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. explores the diverse family histories of politicians Paul Ryan, Tulsi Gabbard and Marco Rubio. They each see a shared vision of the great American melting pot reflected in their ancestors’ stories.

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.

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

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. takes actors Claire Danes and Jeff Daniels on a journey into their roots, uncovering primal scenes from our nation’s past, featuring World War One battles, Civil War prison camps, and America’s most infamous witch hunt.

Explore the shared Irish ancestry of three powerful social commentators of our times, Bill Maher, Soledad O'Brien, and Bill O'Reilly.

Discover how actress Julianna Margulies, author Azar Nafisi and chef Lidia Bastianich are bound together by their ancestors’ singular and deeply human desire to preserve their most cherished traditions.

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.