Season 12 • Episode 8
LatestHenry Louis Gates, Jr. maps the roots of director Spike Lee and actor Kristin Chenoweth, meeting ancestors whose creativity built their families.
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.
Writing
Gates crafts narratives that make strangers feel like family.
Production
Stunning archival research brings dead ancestors vividly to life.
Direction
Perfect reveal timing—reality TV editing at its most manipulative-best.
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Gates was arrested in 2009 for 'breaking into' his own home, which directly inspired Obama to host the 'Beer Summit' and arguably made this show possible.
The show revolutionized how Americans discuss race by making DNA results dinner table conversation—ancestry.com searches spiked 300% after early seasons aired.
US
