Seattle-born Taryn Delanie Smith first came to public attention as a beauty pageant titleholder, becoming the first Black Miss New York to be crowned while wearing her natural hair, before coming second overall in the Miss America 2023 pageant.

Smith went on to gain attention more recently when she went viral on TikTok for a comedy sketch she wrote and performed, and now boasts 1.4 million followers on the app. In May it was announced that she would be one of the five ‘influencers’ in the new Reese Witherspoon-produced talk show Influenced on Prime Video, opposite fellow content creators including Eyal Booker and Tefi Pessoa, set for release in August.