‘Finding Your Roots’ Finale Sneak Peek: Laurence Fishburne Has Existential Reaction to Finally Finding Biological Father (VIDEO)

Amanda Bell April 7, 2025, 3:21 pm

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The Season 10 finale of Finding Your Roots With Henry Louis Gates Jr. is upon us this week. On Tuesday’s (April 8) episode, Gates himself is put in the hot seat as he learns about a piece of his family’s past. The episode, titled “Finding Your Roots,” also features actor Laurence Fishburne as he discovers the identity of his biological father, a mystery that’s plagued him for his entire life.

In TV Insider’s exclusive sneak peek at the episode, Fishburne reacts to finding out who his father was from Gates and the research team at Finding Your Roots, saying, “I’m having all the feels… I’m intrigued. I’m relieved. I’m confused. And I’m also quite all right with all of this.”

“I’m really all right with all of this because I don’t have to speculate about it anymore,” the actor continues of seeing his biological father’s face for the very first time. “I don’t have to wonder every time I look up and think, ‘Oh, is it that guy?'”

When host Gates asks if this information makes him feel less like an “orphan,” Fishburne answers in the affirmative. “Yeah, absolutely.”

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“I feel less isolated,” Fishburne continues, “And other. Yeah, I feel less other.” (Otherness is a philosophical concept in which a person can be perceived as less than another person. In other words, finally seeing his dad’s face has given him an existential boost.)

Fishburne was born to Hattie Bell in Atlanta, Georgia, and the man he knew as his father was Laurence John Fishburne, Jr., a corrections officer. After his parents split up, Hattie moved with her son to New York, and he saw “Fish” much less regularly.

In an interview with Cigar Aficionado, the actor remembered, “He was big. In my mind, he was huge. My mom saw something in me, she saw that the whole creative thing was going on. But Fish was the one who took me to the movies. Guy movies. Action movies. He would take me to see Clint Eastwood movies, and he took me to a lot of John Wayne movies. They were so cool. And I remember going to see Where Eagles Dare with him and thinking, ‘Wow, Richard Burton. That’s one bad-a*s motherf***er.'”

He also recalled staying with his father when his acting career got going, saying, “Fish was a corrections officer, in juvenile justice… One day, early on, he took a group of inmates to see Cornbread, Earl and Me. Then he calls me up and says, ‘The guys in the lockup, they got a message for you. They said you got a real good thing going for yourself. They’re real proud of you. And they said if you ever f*** it up and wind up in a lockdown, they’ll whip your a**.'”

Fishburne found out that the man he’d always known as his father was not his biological dad when he was 49 years old.

Finding Your Roots, Tuesdays, 8/7c, PBS