(L-R) Actor Courtney B. Vance, Actress/Playwright Anna Deavere Smith, Recording artist Nas, Actress Khandi Alexander, and Executive Producer, Writer and Presenter Henry Louis Gates, Jr. speak onstage at the 'Finding Your Roots 2 ' panel during the PBS Networks portion of the 2014 Summer Television Critics Association at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on July 23, 2014 in Beverly Hills, California
You know you have a complicated family history when ancestry.com’s help line tells you, “We can’t help you.”
This is what actor Courtney B. Vance says he was told verbatim when he went to the popular genealogy website for help in researching his dad’s side of the family. Luckily for Vance, Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and his trusty DNA kit was available.
The Harvard professor is back on PBS this month with Vance and 28 other celebs for “Finding Your Roots 2.” The season premiere will find Vance, author Stephen King and actress Gloria Reuben all exploring the mysteries of their paternal ancestry.
Vance’s story is particularly complicated because his dad, Conroy Vance, was a foster child who never discussed his biological father.
“I’ve been looking for my dad’s side of the family for a long time,” he told the TCA Summer Press Tour. “My dad would never talk about him, my mom didn’t even know anything about him.
“Growing up, my dad and my mom were there for my sister and I. We were a tight, tight family, and for us not to know anything about him, there were certain things we just didn’t talk about with Daddy. It’s just family. Family is funny, and so it was not an unnatural thing for me growing up not to know anything about my dad or about the Vance side of our family.”
Courtney-BVance-Cropped-Headshot
Vance has expressed endless gratitude toward Dr. Gates for tacking his father’s branch of the family tree for the series.
The actor, who just finished a run on Showtime’s “Masters of Sex,” explains how he was literally turned away by ancestry.com when he first attempted to track down his father’s lineage.
Listen to Vance’s ancestry.com ordeal below:
[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/166269094″]
“Finding Your Roots 2” will feature 29 celebrities from sports, music, film, television, theatre, and literature, airing Tuesdays, Sept. 23 through Nov. 25 at 8 p.m. ET.
Also finding their roots in season 2 are Vance’s wife Angela Bassett, Ben Affleck, Jessica Alba, Khandi Alexander, Tom Colicchio, Tina Fey, Sally Field, Derek Jeter, Nas, Anna Deavere Smith and Sting.
Watch the season 2 promo below:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Z7o5Jkij4k]