Viola Davis and Brian Cox on “Finding Your Roots”

Viola Davis and Brian Cox

“I’m the amalgamation of a lot of stories and a lot of secrets,” says Viola Davis on Finding Your Roots. The award-winning actress was born on a South Carolina plantation where her mother’s family had lived for generations. With DNA testing, she learns the true identity of her great-grandfather. Davis also hears about an enslaved ancestor, Emanuel Howell, born in South Carolina about 1840 who applied for a pension for his service in the Confederate States Army.

Scottish-born Brian Cox, star of HBO’s Succession, uncovers the long-forgotten exploits of his maternal grandfather, a sergeant in the first World War. “Almost all of Brian’s ancestors were farmers or laborers who struggled their entire lives just to put food on the table,” says show’s host, Dr. Henry Louis Gates Jr. Three of the actor’s poverty-stricken ancestors lived in poor houses in nineteenth-century Scotland—including one who spent time in jail as a teenager. “I couldn’t be anywhere without this heritage as sad and depressing as it is,” says Cox.

Finding Your Roots airs Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023, at 8 p.m. (ET) on PBS.

Photos: Viola Davis (DFree/Shutterstock); Brian Cox (PBS)