Taryn Delanie Smith is held together with threads of light. She's likely most well-known today for playing Denise, a gum-chewing, bathrobe-wearing receptionist in heaven with a thick New York accent and her hair in a towel. Alongside Denise, she brings to life Tammy — a vengeful ghost who somehow resides in heaven — and a rotating cast of characters who pass through the pearly gates. Always on the cusp of overflowing — into tears, into laughter, into hugging a stranger, into wrestling with the weight of the patriarchy — Taryn feels, at any moment, ready to burst. "I know how it feels to have so many big emotions, and we live in a society that is constantly tamping women down and telling us to feel less, and be quieter, and if we do feel anything at all, we're hysterical. That would just about make anybody a little bit depressed," she says. The girls were reacting to a patriarchal world with whatever tools they had at hand; "the boys' cruelty always felt malicious." After moving to New ...