Who Do You Think You Are? comes to America

The names of the celebrities taking part in the new US version of Who Do You Think You Are? have been announced.

Lisa Kudrow, perhaps most famous for playing Phoebe in Friends, has been a key figure in bringing the show to American screens and will be among the celebrities tracing their roots when the series starts on 5 March. She'll be joined by Sarah Jessica Parker, whose Sex and the City co-star Kim Cattrall featured in an emotional episode from last year's UK version, and Parker's husband, actor Matthew Broderick.

Leading figures from the acting world feature strongly in the rest of the line-up, too: Susan Sarandon, Brooke Shields and director Spike Lee will also discover their ancestry in the show. American football player Emmitt Smith completes the seven-episode series, and producers hope the international renown of the participants will help spread the genealogy message around the world.

"In the UK series, many of the British celebrities aren't so well-known overseas, but because in the American version we're talking about Hollywood A-listers, they're known just about everywhere," enthuses Tom McClelland, sales director of Outright Distribution, part of Shed Media, the parent group of Wall to Wall. "I think it's really going to open up new doors in terms of selling the US version, but also in terms of selling new local versions too."