In his new PBS series, Faces of America, The Root’s editor-in-chief, Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., traces the ancestry of 12 famous Americans. Take a look at excerpts from Eva Longoria's interview.

In his new PBS series, Faces of America, The Root’s editor-in-chief, Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., traces the ancestry of 12 famous Americans. Take a look at excerpts from Olympics-gold-winning figure skater Kristi Yamaguchi.

In his new PBS series, Faces of America, The Root’s editor-in-chief, Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., traces the ancestry of 12 famous Americans. Take a look at excerpts from Chef Mario Batali's interview.

The Root’s editor-in-chief, Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr., is launching a new PBS show that builds on the success of his African-American Lives, a series that traced the ancestry of famous black Americans. His new series, Faces of America, uses the same potent combination of traditional genealogical research and advanced DNA techniques to explore the immigrant origins of 12 famous Americans. The Root has obtained clips from the program that will be posted on this site throughout Black History Month. These excerpts are from Gates’ interview with Queen Noor, the widow of the late King Hussein of Jordan. The queen was born in the United States but is great-granddaughter of an immigrant from Syria.