\n<\/p>\n
Hollywood can seem vast with all the entertainment and celebrities it births, but Tinseltown is actually small. It gets even smaller when discovering the familial ties some stars have.\n<\/p>\n
Through shows like Finding Your Roots<\/em> and 2 Lies & a Leaf<\/em>, and with the latest advancements in genealogical studies, many A-listers have delved into their family trees and learned about their distant relatives. From Ciara<\/a> and Derek Jeter<\/a> to Terry Crews<\/a> and Billy Crudup<\/a>, unlikely pairs of stars have uncovered shocking links.\n<\/p>\n As Finding Your Roots<\/em> premieres its 12th season<\/a> on Jan. 6, 2026, read on to find out which stars have ties to royalty, which pop stars have a distant connection and which actor and athlete met up after finding out they’re related.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span> In the season 12 trailer<\/a> of Finding Your Roots<\/em>, America Ferrera<\/a> learned that director Ava DuVernay<\/a> is her cousin. Her reaction was simple \u2014 and relatable: “Oh my God! I love that.”\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span> Clearly, talent runs in the family for this trio.<\/p>\n Back in 2024, after both Brown and Brooks were nominated for Oscars for their work in American Fiction <\/em>and The Color Purple<\/em>, respectively, Nash shared a congratulatory post, revealing they were all cousins.<\/p>\n “Both of my COUSINS are OSCAR NOMINATED \u203c\ufe0f\u203c\ufe0f Yes! We are blood related! REAL cousins!” she wrote on Instagram. “I\u2019m so proud of my fam! @thedaniellebrooks @sterlingkbrown I\u2019m rooting for you! \ud83d\udc9c\ud83c\udf89\ud83d\udc9c\ud83c\udf89\ud83d\udc9c\ud83c\udf89\ud83d\udc9c\ud83c\udf89.”<\/p>\n Brooks spoke of their relation while on Live with Kelly and Mark<\/em> last summer, saying, “I can’t remember who’s on what side. One is on my mom’s side, the other is on my dad’s side. I’m the connective tissue.”\n<\/p>\n “Somebody make a movie or a TV show and let’s actually do this!” she concluded<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span> Following Billy Crudup<\/a>‘s discovery on Finding Your Roots <\/em>that Terry Crews<\/a> is his distant relative, the America’s Got Talent <\/em>host revealed he was able to meet his newfound family member<\/a> in New York City.<\/p>\n “The fact that we are blood relatives, to me, is a statement about what America is,” Crews said on the Today<\/em> show. “It\u2019s also a statement about humanity. Because we all think, you know, he\u2019s white, I\u2019m Black. But the reality is we are true blood relatives.”\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span> Gates informed Sheryl Lee Ralph<\/a> that she shared a “long stretch of DNA” on her 16th chromosome with fellow actor Samuel L. Jackson<\/a>, indicating a common ancestor.<\/p>\n “Are you kidding me?!” the Abbott Elementary<\/em> actress said. “And I like him so much!”\n<\/p>\n She added that the prolific star reminded her of her brother Timothy “for whatever reason.”\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span> Michael Douglas<\/a> was shocked to find out he is a “DNA cousin”<\/a> of Scarlett Johansson<\/a> on Finding Your Roots<\/em>, with the two sharing “identical branches of DNA on four different chromosomes.”<\/p>\n “Well, I look forward to seeing Scarlett next time!\u201d the actor quipped.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span> After Whoopi Goldberg’s Finding Your Roots<\/em> segment revealed that football player Tony Gonzalez is her distant cousin<\/a>, the actress invited the former athlete to The View<\/em>.<\/p>\n Referring to Goldberg as “Cousin Whoopi,”<\/a> the tight end jokingly asked for $5 and a spot in her will. In return, the comedian equested Super Bowl tickets.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span> Bob Odenkirk<\/a> has a distant relation to the British royal family. The Better Call Saul<\/em> star discovered that he is the 11th cousin of King Charles<\/a> via his father’s side.<\/p>\n Before Gates revealed Odenkirk’s surprising relative, he hinted that there may be a royal connection, to which Odenkirk responded, “I’m not a monarchist.”\n<\/p>\n After the reveal, Odenkirk laughed: “Well, maybe I’ll change my mind on that.”\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span> Ciara<\/a> had a “crazy” revelation on Finding Your Roots<\/em> when she found out baseball legend Derek Jeter<\/a> is her distant cousin<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cCiara and Derek share a long identical stretch of DNA on their 14th chromosome DNA, which we know Derek inherited from his mother,\u201d a voiceover explained.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span> The new pope has a host of famous relatives, sharing a maternal ancestor born in the 1590s, per Henry Louis Gates Jr.<\/a>‘s research on Finding Your Roots<\/em>.<\/p>\n Gates visited Pope Leo XIV<\/a> at the Vatican to confirm his relation to Pierre and Justin Trudeau, Hillary Clinton, Justin Bieber, Angelina Jolie and Madonna, previously reported<\/a> by The New York Times<\/em>.<\/a> He is their ninth-cousin several times removed, according to Gates.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span> The resemblance is uncanny.<\/p>\n “I was very happy about that,”\u00a0Larry David<\/a>\u00a0said in July 2017 of his newfound familial connection with Vermont Senator\u00a0Bernie Sanders<\/a>, which he discovered via his appearance on Finding Your Roots<\/em>. “I thought there must have been some connection.”\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span> Sanders shares another famous relative in Debra Messing<\/a>. The actress learned the Vermont senator is her DNA cousin in the 11th season of Finding Your Roots<\/em>.<\/p>\n “What! Are you kidding me? Bernie Sanders?” asked a shocked Messing. “No way! Oh my gosh… That is mind-blowing.”\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span> Meanwhile, David had another famous familial connection in actress and screenwriter Lena Dunham<\/a>. The Girls <\/em>creator found out on Finding Your Roots<\/em> that the Curb Your Enthusiasm<\/em> star is her cousin on her mother’s side.<\/p>\n \u201cMy husband [Luis Felber] is going to freak out! It’s Larry David!” she exclaimed. \u201cThis is the\u00a0hottest\u00a0information I could have ever gotten.\u201d\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span> The\u00a0RuPaul<\/a>‘s Drag Race\u00a0<\/em>host invited his cousin Cory Booker (the two found out they were related on an episode of PBS’\u00a0Finding Your Roots)<\/em>\u00a0to\u00a0make a cameo<\/a>\u00a0on the show’s season 13 finale.\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/span> Ashley Tisdale<\/a>\u00a0found out about her family link to\u00a0Austin Butler<\/a>\u00a0on a 2022 episode of Ancestry’s\u00a02 Lies & A Leaf<\/em><\/a>\u00a0series.<\/p>\n Surprisingly, the\u00a0High School Musical<\/em><\/a>\u00a0actress and\u00a0Elvis<\/em><\/a>\u00a0star \u2014 who both starred in 2009’s\u00a0Aliens in the Attic<\/em>\u00a0and 2011’s\u00a0Sharpay’s Fabulous Adventure<\/em>\u00a0\u2014 are 10th cousins once removed.<\/p>\n “No wonder we have such a connection!<\/a>” Tisdale said when she heard the news. “We’ve always said we were brother and sister! That is insane. I literally am going to cry.”\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Former pop star\u00a0Lance Bass<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Britney Spears<\/a>\u00a0once shared the Super Bowl<\/a> stage in 2001, and the *NSYNC member later found out he and his old friend share a family tree on a 2021 episode of the\u00a02 Lies & A Leaf<\/em>\u00a0series.\n<\/p>\n “Look, I wanted to be related to the Queen,” he said. “Well, now\u00a0I’m related to the queen of pop<\/a>!”\n<\/p>\n Calling Spears his “little sister,” Bass said he always “felt like we looked like family.”\n<\/p>\n Plus, “she is like family to me,” he added, “so the fact that we are blood-related is amazing.”\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Hollywood can seem vast with all the entertainment and celebrities it births, but Tinseltown is actually small. It gets even smaller when discovering the familial ties some stars have. Through shows like Finding Your Roots and 2 Lies & a Leaf, and with the latest advancements in genealogical studies, many A-listers have delved into their … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Celebrities-You-Didnt-Know-Were-Related.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16035,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16033\/revisions\/16035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jubi24.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}} America Ferrera and Ava DuVernay <\/span> <\/h2>\n
\nLucy North\/PA Images via Getty; Marc Piasecki\/WireImage<\/p>\n
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Niecy Nash-Betts, Sterling K. Brown and Danielle Brooks <\/span> <\/h2>\n
\nUnique Nicole\/FilmMagic, Kevin Winter\/WireImage, Taylor Hill\/FilmMagic<\/p>\n
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Billy Crudup and Terry Crews <\/span> <\/h2>\n
\nJoy Malone\/Getty Images;Steve Granitz\/FilmMagic<\/p>\n
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Sheryl Lee Ralph and Samuel L. Jackson <\/span> <\/h2>\n
\nRandy Shropshire\/Getty Images for Critics Choice Association; Arturo Holmes\/WireImage<\/p>\n
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Michael Douglas and Scarlett Johansson <\/span> <\/h2>\n
\nDaniele Venturelli\/Getty; Monica Schipper\/Getty<\/p>\n
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Whoopi Goldberg and Tony Gonzalez <\/span> <\/h2>\n
\nABC;Getty<\/p>\n
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Bob Odenkirk and King Charles <\/span> <\/h2>\n
\nCorine Solberg\/Getty, Victoria Jones – Pool\/Getty<\/p>\n
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Ciara and Derek Jeter <\/span> <\/h2>\n
\nJon Kopaloff\/FilmMagic<\/p>\n
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Pope Leo XIV, Justin Trudeau, Hillary Clinton, Justin Bieber, Angelina Jolie and Madonna <\/span> <\/h2>\n
\nAntoine Mekary\/Godong\/Universal Images Group via Getty; Chesnot\/Getty; Dominik Bindl\/Getty; Theo Wargo\/Getty; Pascal Le Segretain\/Getty; Dimitrios Kambouris\/Getty<\/p>\n
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Larry David and Bernie Sanders <\/span> <\/h2>\n
\nDana Edelson\/NBCU Photo Bank\/NBCUniversal via Getty<\/p>\n
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Debra Messing and Bernie Sanders <\/span> <\/h2>\n
\nArturo Holmes\/Getty; Nathan Congleton\/NBC\/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty<\/p>\n
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Lena Dunham and Larry David <\/span> <\/h2>\n
\nBirdie Thompson\/Variety via Getty; Todd Owyoung\/NBC via Getty\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Cory Booker and RuPaul <\/span> <\/h2>\n
\nMichael Kovac\/Getty; Randy Holmes\/ABC via Getty\u00a0<\/p>\n
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Ashley Tisdale and Austin Butler <\/span> <\/h2>\n
\nRick Rowell\/Disney Channel via Getty<\/p>\n
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Lance Bass and Britney Spears <\/span> <\/h2>\n
\nKMazur\/WireImage<\/span>
\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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