“Finding Your Roots ”Season 11 Will Feature Chrissy Teigen, Kristen Bell and Laurence Fishburne (Exclusive)

The Emmy-nominated docuseries returns in January with new revelations for its celebrity guests

Finding Your Roots is returning for another season filled with startling revelations.

The PBS docuseries' eleventh season debuts on January 7, 2025, with longtime host Henry Louis Gates Jr. and a new roster of celebrities who will learn more about their family trees. This season’s guests include Joy Behar, Kristen Bell, Laurence Fishburne, Debra Messing, Michael Imperioli, Melanie Lynskey, Natalie Morales, Sheryl Lee Ralph, Lea Salonga, Amanda Seyfried, Dax Shepard, Sharon Stone, Chrissy Teigen, celebrity chefs José Andrés and Sean Sherman, novelist Amy Tan, poet Rita Dove, historian Lonnie Bunch and musician Rubén Blades.

“Through Gates’ discerning touch, his guests learn what every family history shares — love, courage, and sacrifice — and how these shared experiences transcend borders, merging to form an American root system fortified by its diversity,” according to the synopsis. “Along the way, viewers are transported from coastal Africa to the Mississippi Delta; from shtetls in the former Russian Empire to the ancestral lands of the Lakota Nation; from villages in the Philippines to a pirate enclave in Puerto Rico — all in search of the evidence that will bring our guests’ ancestors to life. What’s more, this new season also includes a special reveal: the solution to a mystery that has haunted Gates’ own family for generations.”

Related: Finding Your Roots' Henry Louis Gates Jr. Says Jodie Foster Babysat His Two Daughters but 'Wouldn't Take Any Money' (Exclusive)

Stone, 66, discovers she’s descended from two French kings and Charlemagne, the founder of modern Europe. Meanwhile, Fishburne, 63, learns the identity of his biological father. Morales, 52, meanwhile, realizes she’s related to one of the “legendary pirates of the Caribbean,” and Imperioli finds out his family’s patriarch — an Italian American tavern-owner — “has more in common” with his Sopranos character Michael “that he’d ever imagined.”

For 10 seasons, Finding Your Roots has welcomed various big-name guests and uncovered their family trees, often with surprising results.

Edward Norton learned that he and Julia Roberts are genetic cousins, Kerry Washington discovered she was conceived through a sperm donor, and Viola Davis found out that she’s related to Anita Hill. During its most recent season, Lena Dunham was bowled over by the realization she had a familial connection to Larry David, calling it "the hottest information I could have ever gotten." Additionally, Gates revealed to Bob Odenkirk that he has ties to King Charles and Nathan Lane.

The show has evolved over the years, drawing a wide range of celebrities. Some revelations have been welcome surprises, like when Andy Samberg learned the identity of his grandmother in season 5, which had been previously unknown to his mother, who was adopted as an infant.

Related: Henry Louis Gates Jr. Reveals How Stars Get on Finding Your Roots: 'We Have a Long Waiting List' (Exclusive)

When LL Cool J learned on the show in 2016 that his mother was adopted, it “blew” the rapper’s mind.

“LL had a whole new family, and it humbles me to be able to connect people to their ancestors, to their genealogical and genetic roots,” Gates told PEOPLE in July.

Finding Your Roots is nominated for its first-ever Emmy Award this year for outstanding hosted nonfiction series or special — a distinction that caught Gates by surprise.

“I was waking up, dealing with jet lag. I looked at my text, and I thought I was hallucinating,” Gates also told PEOPLE in July.

In addition to Finding Your Roots, Gates has another docuseries in the works — Great Migrations: A People on the Move — premiering January 28, 2025, on PBS. “Migration is not unique to any single ethnicity or group, but it is a deeply profound aspect of the modern African American experience simply because Black people were denied movement for so long,” according to the synopsis, adding, “This series will tell the story of African American movement over the 20^th and 21^st centuries, and how it has shaped the nation.”

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Season 11 of Finding Your Roots debuts on January 7, 2025, on PBS. The first two episodes of Great Migrations: A People on the Move premiere at 9 PM ET on Jan. 28, 2025.

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