Finding your fellow celebs. Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the most notable celebrities who discovered on “Finding Your Roots” that their family tree is even more star-studded than they thought.
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00:00My biggest fear is that we're cousins and that it will be illegal.
00:04Yeah, right.
00:05Welcome to Miss Mojo.
00:06And today we're counting down our picks for the most notable celebrities who discovered
00:11on Finding Your Roots that their family tree is even more star studded than they thought.
00:16And I say he does a better Bernie Sanders than I do.
00:20Number 10.
00:20Marissa Tomei and Julianne Moore.
00:23Oscar winning actresses Marissa Tomei and Julianne Moore go way back.
00:28I'm very, very, very grateful.
00:30The gift of not only a lifetime, many lifetimes.
00:34They both attended Boston University in the 1980s and have maintained a solid friendship,
00:39even co-starring in projects like As the World Turns and Crazy Stupid Love.
00:44However, when Tomei appeared on Finding Your Roots in 2019,
00:48she learned that their connection goes even further back.
00:51Turns out they share an identical stretch of DNA on Tomei's X chromosome,
00:56which makes them genetic cousins.
00:58You do match someone who's been in the series before.
01:01Really?
01:03That means you're cousins.
01:04You have long, identical segments of DNA.
01:07Isn't that cool?
01:08Yes.
01:08This twist was particularly surprising since Tomei's roots are entirely Italian,
01:14while Moore has no Italian ancestry.
01:16Regardless, both women were overjoyed by the revelation
01:20and happily shared the news with their fans on social media.
01:23Julianne, Julianne, you know, we went to school together.
01:28Really? I didn't know that.
01:29Number nine, John Lithgow and Henry Louis Gates Jr.
01:33Since the show's premiere in 2012, host Henry Louis Gates Jr.
01:37has been guiding celebrities on eye-opening journeys into their family histories,
01:42bringing them closer to their ancestors and, in some cases, other famous faces.
01:47Learning about things that were there all along,
01:51Learning about things that were there all this time,
01:54just waiting to be discovered.
01:56But in 2021, during an episode featuring renowned actor John Lithgow,
02:00Gates unearthed a discovery that hit close to home, literally.
02:05No.
02:06No.
02:07Yes, we are related.
02:09I am 50% European, and I descend from a white woman on my mother's side who was English.
02:15To everyone's surprise, including Lithgow's, they found out they were DNA cousins,
02:20thanks to Gates's European lineage on his mother's side.
02:24Lithgow was completely floored by this news,
02:26and his sincere reaction afterwards is sure to tug at your heartstrings.
02:31What a fantastic ending.
02:33Oh, my brother.
02:36Number eight, Kevin Bacon and Keira Sedgwick.
02:40Hollywood supercouple Kevin Bacon and Keira Sedgwick fell in love
02:43after first crossing paths on the set of the 1988 TV film Lemon Sky.
02:48So we met doing a movie called Lemon Sky, and we were in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
02:54and I wasn't really interested in hooking up or whatever it is that the kids say these days.
03:00That's what we say.
03:01Little did they know that their love story had an unexpected twist waiting for them.
03:06Fast forward to 2012, when they both appeared on Finding Your Roots
03:10and discovered that they were actually related.
03:13So we decided that we would play a little game that we call Six Degrees of Keira Sedgwick.
03:17Okay.
03:19To see who we could connect you to by genealogy.
03:23Could you turn the page?
03:24Okay.
03:26Met that guy before?
03:28Before you gasp, their familial connection is not that scandalous.
03:32They are ninth cousins, once removed.
03:35For Sedgwick, this news wasn't all that surprising,
03:38but it definitely closed the gap to far fewer degrees of separation
03:42from Kevin Bacon than she might have imagined.
03:45I said, so are we cousins?
03:47She was like,
03:50I said, all right, spill the beans.
03:53Number seven, Bill Maher and Bill O'Reilly.
03:57As far as familial connections go, this one is as shocking as you can get.
04:01Bill Maher and Bill O'Reilly are two of the most contrasting personalities
04:06you've probably ever come across.
04:08Maher is a sharp-tongued liberal atheist,
04:10while O'Reilly is a well-known figure in conservative Christian circles.
04:15Despite these differences, a season three episode revealed
04:18that both men are actually distant cousins.
04:21The ties between the two were discovered through DNA testing of their Y chromosomes,
04:26which traced their roots to a common male ancestor
04:29from the medieval kingdom of Brethna in Ireland.
04:32It's a fun reminder that even the most polar opposites
04:35can have a surprising connection.
04:38Does the name Bill Maher mean anything?
04:44True.
04:46So here's the fact of the tip of the day,
04:49you can pick your friends, you cannot select your relatives.
04:52Number six, Pamela Adlon and Meryl Streep.
04:56When Pamela Adlon appeared on a season eight episode in 2022,
05:00she made a few fascinating discoveries about her family history,
05:04but none made her squeal with joy quite like this one.
05:07I want, I want to know and I don't, I don't want to disrespect my lineage,
05:14but I really, I, I, I'm so curious.
05:17Adlon was asked to guess her DNA cousin and wished for the legendary comedian Red Fox.
05:23However, when she flipped the page, her expectations were completely shattered.
05:28Much to her astonishment and glee,
05:31Adlon found that she was instead related to screen goddess Meryl Streep.
05:39What?
05:40That's right.
05:41Her teary eyed reaction afterwards was completely understandable
05:45because who wouldn't want to be related
05:47to the multiple Oscar winning powerhouse that is Meryl Streep.
05:51This is unbelievable.
05:53That's so cool.
05:55Number five, Jimmy Kimmel and Martha Stewart.
05:58One is a beloved comedian and the host of a long running late night talk show.
06:03The other is a savvy business mogul who turned a knack for DIY into an empire.
06:08Today's show is all about one pot meals.
06:11Not only can one pot meals be extremely flavorful,
06:14they're fuss free and a cinch to clean up.
06:17Jimmy Kimmel and Martha Stewart are both household names in their own right,
06:21but it turns out they share more than just their celebrity status.
06:25In 2016, when Kimmel appeared on Finding Your Roots,
06:29he discovered that he and Stewart are actually distant cousins.
06:33Well, this is great news for the holidays.
06:36I mean, it's very bad news for her, but it's very good news for me.
06:39The revelation was as surprising as it was fitting,
06:42especially when Kimmel realized he shared a quirky trait with the domestic diva.
06:47The comedian eventually reunited with his long lost cousin
06:51on her show Martha and Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party in 2019.
06:56I heard this.
06:57Yes.
06:57They found out we're related.
06:59We are cousins.
07:00Number four, Carol Burnett and Bill Hader.
07:03Carol Burnett is without a doubt a comedy icon,
07:07and a deep dive into her family history during the ninth season
07:10revealed that humor runs in her genes.
07:13And the two shared an intense bond.
07:18Carol even famously ended every episode of her show
07:23by tugging on her ear, a secret symbol to her grandmother.
07:27Indeed, Burnett learned that she is a distant cousin
07:30of none other than former Saturday Night Live cast member Bill Hader.
07:34Just like Burnett, Hader first made his name on a variety sketch show,
07:38which served as a springboard for his successful comedy career.
07:42That's Bill Hader.
07:43You know him?
07:44Of course.
07:45He was on my 50th anniversary show.
07:47Burnett was so thrilled by the revelation
07:50that she reached out to Hader via email to let him know,
07:53leaving him completely stunned.
07:55Apparently, the two still keep in touch,
07:58and Hader even connected with other members of the Burnett family.
08:02Isn't that something?
08:04Number three, Larry David and Bernie Sanders.
08:07At first, learning that comedian Larry David
08:10and U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders are related might seem surprising.
08:14Larry's also created an impersonation of our second guest,
08:19Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
08:21But the more you think about it, the more it makes perfect sense.
08:25Not only do they share a physical resemblance,
08:28but also similar backgrounds.
08:30Both are elderly Jewish men born in New York City in the 1940s.
08:34David has even impersonated Sanders multiple times on Saturday Night Live.
08:41Well, what do you mean?
08:41You don't think so.
08:42Shake my hand.
08:43You coughed into your hand.
08:45Don't shake it after a cough.
08:46So when they found out on the fourth season of Finding Your Roots
08:49that they are sixth cousins once removed,
08:52it felt more like a we-knew-it moment than anything else.
08:56Still, the news caught both men completely off guard.
08:59What the hell?
09:02You're kidding.
09:03Oh, my God.
09:06That is unbelievable.
09:08Number two, Julia Roberts and Edward Norton.
09:11Julia Roberts already has a star-studded family tree,
09:15with her older brother Eric Roberts and niece Emma Roberts,
09:18both being well-known Hollywood performers.
09:20The things you say are hilarious and poignant.
09:22Thank you.
09:23But thanks to Finding Your Roots,
09:25the Oscar-winning actress learned that she has yet another famous relative,
09:30actor Edward Norton.
09:32In light of the revelation,
09:33Roberts shared that although she had crossed paths with Norton,
09:37they had never actually worked on a project together.
09:40Your DNA cousin is Edward Norton.
09:43Have you ever worked with Ed?
09:45No.
09:45I mean, I've met him, but I've never worked with him.
09:47Norton, on the other hand, poked fun at the situation,
09:50joking that she inherited all the good looks in the family.
09:54Fingers crossed we'll one day see these two talented actors
09:57and distant cousins team up on screen.
09:59How come I didn't get the teeth and the smile?
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10:18Number 1.
10:20Michael Douglas and Scarlett Johansson
10:22Hollywood actors Michael Douglas and Scarlett Johansson
10:25both starred in the 2019 Marvel blockbuster Avengers Endgame,
10:30though they never shared the screen.
10:32Interestingly, they do share something else, some DNA.
10:36Thanks to Johansson's Eastern European ancestry on her mother's side,
10:40both actors have identical stretches of DNA on four different chromosomes.
10:45Johansson, of course, isn't the only famous name in Douglas' family tree.
10:50He's the son of legendary actor Kirk Douglas
10:53and has many relatives in the film industry.
10:56Another celebrity who discovered a surprising family tie with Scarlett Johansson
11:00on Finding Your Roots was reality TV guru Andy Cohen.
11:04Scar Jo? Yes! You're kidding me!
11:08You share identical DNA with Scarlett Johansson.
11:13What celebrity would you love to be related to? Let us know in the comments below.
11:18This, by the way, this explains me. That's unbelievable. I make my own vinegar.
11:25Do you really?
11:26Yes. Oh my God.
11:27Do you agree with our picks? Check out this other recent clip from Ms. Mojo.
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