For the last four years, Danielle Pinnock has been a ghost — and she couldn't be happier. As one of the large, spirited cast of CBS's Ghosts, Pinnock plays former Prohibition-era jazz singer Alberta, who died on New Year's Eve 1928 after accidentally drinking poisoned moonshine. But in Pinnock's hands, Alberta's living her very best afterlife as the show wraps up its fourth season and looks forward to the now-guaranteed two seasons more ahead.

Part of Pinnock's joy in the role, as she tells Gold Derby, comes from the way Alberta is written. "A lot of times what happens when you see any actor of color playing on broadcast television, we almost become decorations on a Christmas tree where we're just fun to look at, but no one really cares about our storylines," she says.

Not so with series creators and showrunners Joe Port and Joe Wiseman. That's very true with Alberta,...