Playwright Tracy Letts is exploring the relationship between his family background and his theater work in an exclusive clip from Finding Your Roots. In a new episode of the PBS genealogy series, the Pulitzer Prize winner looked back at his own familiar circumstances and how they manifest onstage in plays like August: Osage County.
He recounted an experience when a relative came to see a production of the play and recognized his own childhood experience depicted onstage. Despite the trauma of the memory, Letts’ relative found watching the play a positive experience. “He roared with laughter in the theater. He liked seeing himself represented,” Letts recalled.
Watch the full episode of FINDING YOUR ROOTS Season 12 featuring Tracy Letts and Sara Haines, when it premieres Tuesday, February 10th, 2026, at 8/7c on PBS.
Letts is an award-winning playwright, known for plays like August: Osage County and The Minutes. Onscreen, he has appeared in Homeland, Lady Bird, Ford v. Ferrari, and Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers. In 2013, he won a Tony Award for his performance in the Broadway revival of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
His play Bug is currently running on Broadway at the Samuel J. Friedman Theatre. Originally scheduled to play through Sunday, February 8 and initially extended to February 22, the production will now play an additional two weeks through Sunday, March 8.
In the 12th season of Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Letts and 19 other celebrity guests sit down with Gates to dive into their ancestral history and family trees. Other guests this season include Darren Criss, Kristin Chenoweth, Delroy Lindo, Kate Burton, Lizzy Caplan, Liza Colón-Zayas, Danielle Deadwyler, Barry Diller, America Ferrera, Flea, Rhiannon Giddens, Brittney Griner, Sara Haines, Wiz Khalifa, Sanaa Lathan, Spike Lee, Lizzo, Hasan Minhaj, and Chris Paul.
Photo Credit: PBS
