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FINDING YOUR ROOTS: Larger Than Life

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Lea Salonga in the new season 11 of FINDING YOUR ROOTS.
PBS
Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Lea Salonga in the new season 11 of FINDING YOUR ROOTS.

Stream now with KPBS Passport with KPBS+ / Watch Tuesday, March 24, 2026 at 8 p.m. on KPBS TV

The acclaimed series returns with Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. exploring the mysteries, surprises and revelations hidden in the family trees of popular figures.

Renowned scholar Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. returns for a new season of FINDING YOUR ROOTS. Using genealogical detective work and cutting-edge DNA analysis, Gates guides twenty compelling guests deep into their family trees, revealing surprising stories that transcend borders, illuminating an American root system fortified by its diversity.

On this episode, Gates introduces actors Lea Salonga and Amanda Seyfried to ancestors who are every bit as dramatic as the characters they’ve played on stage and screen, telling stories of relatives who survived heart-wrenching ordeals.

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Amanda Seyfried on the new season 11 premiere of FINDING YOUR ROOTS.
PBS
Amanda Seyfried on the new season 11 premiere of FINDING YOUR ROOTS.

Watch On Your Schedule: This episode is available to stream with KPBS Passport on KPBS+, a new free streaming video app designed for ease and enjoyment everywhere you watch including Roku, smart TVs and mobile devices. It’s locally curated for San Diego by the KPBS programming team. With a clean and intuitive design, discovering and enjoying KPBS and PBS content on-demand has never been easier.

You can also tune in live to watch our four TV channels in real time: KPBS, KPBS 2, Create, KPBS Kids 24/7. We also added a new channel - FNX (First Nation Experience).

Your KPBS Passport member benefit works on KPBS+ too! You’ll have access to even more great shows when you simply log in with your KPBS Passport account.

About Season 11: The guest roster includes actors Kristen Bell, Laurence Fishburne, Debra Messing, Michael Imperioli, Melanie Lynskey, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Lea Salonga, Amanda Seyfried, Dax Shepard, and Sharon Stone; celebrity chefs José Andrés and Sean Sherman; novelist Amy Tan; poet Rita Dove; historian Lonnie Bunch; talk show host Joy Behar; musician Rubén Blades; journalist Natalie Morales; and model Chrissy Teigen.

For more than a decade, renowned Harvard scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has helped to expand America’s sense of itself, stimulating a national conversation about identity with humor, wisdom, and compassion. Professor Gates has explored the ancestry of dozens of influential people from diverse backgrounds, taking millions of viewers deep into the past to reveal the connections that bind us all.

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