PBS‘ ancestry-revealing series Finding Your Roots proves time and time again that Hollywood is more related than people may think, and on the April 1 episode of the show, Sheryl Lee Ralph was shocked to learn she is a distant cousin of Samuel L. Jackson.
Read on to learn how they’re related and her response to finding out she has a new family member.
Ralph and Jackson share a long stretch of DNA
On the episode, host Henry Louis Gates Jr. told the actor that she shares a “long stretch of DNA on their 16th chromosomes” with one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
“This means that they have a common ancestor somewhere in their family trees,” Gates Jr. explained, as reported by People.
The 68-year-old erupted in laughter when she turned the page and found a picture of Jackson, her distant cousin.
She said, “Are you kidding me?! And I like him so much!”
Ralph added that the revelation makes sense, as she’s “always” thought the actor “reminds me of my brother Timothy … for whatever reason, I don’t know why.”
Gates Jr. said the connection must be “in the DNA,” and she agreed.
“Wow,” Ralph said as she admired her new cousin.
Later in the episode, Ralph gestured that the news was making her head explode.
Jackson’s already part of a star-studded family tree
For Jackson, Ralph is just the latest celebrity to join his star-studded family tree. In August, Janet Jackson said on the BBC’s The Radio 2 Breakfast Show that Samuel L. Jackson, along with Stevie Wonder and Tracy Chapman, are her cousins, People reported.
“Not a lot of people know that,” she said on the morning show, adding that they’re cousins on her “mother’s side.”
Other recent celebrity familial ties discovered on Finding Your Roots
In addition to Ralph, other celebrities have appeared on the PBS show and found out they have some famous family members. In a recent episode, actors Debra Messing and Melanie Lynskey found out they were DNA cousins with Bernie Sanders and Questlove respectively.
