Carla Lozupone Tortelli LeBec

Carla is the waitress at Cheers, and she runs the floor like she owns it. Small, fierce, and perpetually pregnant or between pregnancies, she trades insults with customers and coworkers alike, plays favorites shamelessly, and treats Sam and the regulars with an affection she'd never admit to out loud.

Perlman finds the warmth underneath the venom without ever softening the venom itself. Carla's put-downs are so quick and specific they become a kind of love language, and the show trusts her to be genuinely mean without losing the audience — a hard trick that Perlman's timing makes look effortless.