Brendan Fraser is searching his family history on Finding Your Roots. PopCulture.com obtained an exclusive clip of the new episode that includes the Academy Award-winning actor talking to Finding Your Roots host Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. about his ancestors living in Ireland during the Great Famine, which claimed the lives of one million people during the 1840s and 1850s. Fraser discovered that he didn’t grow up in Ireland because his ancestors immigrated in 1853.
The 10th season of Finding Your Roots premiered on PBS on Jan. 2. In each episode, celebrities are presented with a “book of life” that includes information researched by professional genealogists that allows them to view their ancestral histories. Fraser is featured in the 10th season along with Valerie Bertinelli, Danielle Brooks, LeVar Burton, Ciara, Michael Douglas, Lena Dunham, Sammy Hagar, Sunny Hostin, Tracy Morgan, Alanis Morissette, Ed O’Neill, Bob Odenkirk, Anthony Ramos, Iliza Shlesinger, Wes Studi, Dionne Warwick, and Jesse Williams.
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Finding Your Roots premiered on PBS in 2012. Last year, Gates spoke to Newsweek about how the show was made possible due to the success of the PBS miniseries African American Lives. “It was so popular that PBS said, ‘Nah, you gotta cut white people in on this,’” Gates said while laughing. “And I go, ‘What? They know about their heritage.’ But you know what? Nobody knows about their heritage, and that’s been the biggest surprise.”
Gates also talked about how the series stands out from others that are similar. “What’s really changed our series and distinguishes it from Who Do You Think You Are? in England and in the U.S. is the use of DNA. We have a genius, genetic genealogist, one of the pioneers of the field in CeCe Moore.” Gates Jr. told Newsweek about Moore who has “changed fundamentally what was possible in terms of doing a person’s family tree.”
Fraser, 55, is coming off a year where he won multiple awards for his role in The Whale. He earned an Academy Award and Screen Actor’s Guild Award, and Fraser became the first Canadian to win the Oscar for Best Actor. Fraser is also featured in the Martin Scorsese film Killers of the Flower Moon and is set to star in the upcoming film Brothers. His Finding Your Roots episode will premiere on PBS tonight (Jan. 9) at 8 p.m. ET.
