more diverse cast - suggestions?

In all honesty, I've only heard of 4 people on your list, and I wouldn't want to choose any of them without a preliminary study of their family history. There is no guarantee any of them would be interesting to me; I watch for the genealogy, not for the celebrities. I'd actually like to see more diversity, too. It would be nice to see someone who isn't an actor or musician. Many of us have talked about how we'd like to see "regular" people.

One name screams from my mind.

Idris Elba!

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Finding Your Roots had the following:
1. Harry Connick Jr and Branford Marsalis
2. Cory Booker and John Lewis
3. Barbara Walters and Jeffrey Canada
4. Kyra Sedgewick and Kevin Bacon
5. Angela Buchdahl/Rick Warren/Yasir Qadhi
6. Robert Downey, Jr. and Maggie Gyllenhaal
7. Samuel L. Jackson, Condoleezza Rice and Ruth Simmons
8. Sanjay Gupta/Margaret Cho/Martha Stewart
9. John Legend/Wanda Sykes/Margarett Cooper
10. Michelle Rodriguez/Adrian Grenier/Linda Chavez

Lot more diversity with ethnicity along with "jobs".

Surely, they could expand the cast some. Danny Trejo - OH, YEAH! But I'm fine with most of who they've shown. And it's funny - you can often tell who's going to tell a story that draws you in. (and we can assume these people's history is pre-screened, first).
BBC also has their version of this show. I only knew two names on the list this year. Marianne Faithful and Minnie Driver. I'd guess Minnie's story would be interesting, and we've all heard Marianne's sad tale this week!
But really - were does the BBC show travel to, for the history? They're already there!

Finding your Roots with Henry Gates (Professor) has had more people of color than Caucasians. One season he did 8 blacks and 4 whites so if you want to see diversity - watch his show. Last one I remember was actress Michelle Rodriquez whose family came from Puerto Rico but her DNA had more European DNA than anything else.

Margaret Cho was one of his subjects but I do not remember when. Mindy Kahling, Kal Penn & Dr. Sanjay Gupta are all of Indian ancestry and from seeing the episode on Dr. Gupta, it is very hard to find the correct records for some areas - especially if they were of a lower caste (poor).

One I remember from early on "Who do you Think You Are" was Brooke Shields who was related to Royalty - a French King, I believe. But it was amazing that they traced it back on her father's side about 500 years! Very Interesting.

They have had:

season 1
-SJ Parker eastern European ethnic Jewish descent
-Emmit smith- black and African American roots as well
-spike lee-black

season 2
-Vanessa Williams (black)
-Lionel Richie (Black)
-Gweneth Paltrow who is an ethnic Jew on her father's side

season 3
-Blair Underwood (black)
-Martin Sheen is Hispanic
-Rita Wilson is Eastern European, her father is ethnic Bulgarian Muslim
-Rashida Jones is half-black (mother Peggy Lipton white, dad Quincy Jones black)

season 4
-Chelsy Handler is ethnic Jew on her father's side
-Zooey Deschanel is a Quaker descendent

season 6
-Julie Chen is Chinese
-Angie Harmon is Greek
-Tony Goldwyn is Hassidic Jew
-America Ferrara is Honduran

season 7
-Ginnifer Goodwin ethnic Jew
-Alfie Woodard is black

season 8
-Aisha tyler black
-Katie Segal is Ukrainian Jew
-Lea Michelle is part Turkish on her father's side


Season 5 is the only one with no minorities represented.