Cheralyn likes to refer to herself as a "movie fan who went pro," crediting her work in the film/TV/entertainment industry to her early love of Star Wars. After a brief stint in the Air Force Reserve, she went on to study drama and Radio/Television/Motion Pictures at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Shortly after graduation, Cheralyn relocated to New York to study at The Juilliard School, working on both academic and professional productions such as performing Off-Broadway with John Leguizamo on his one-man show Mambo Mouth. She then moved to Minneapolis to create Muppet costumes for Sesame Street Live! (as well as a large purple bunny for the film The Net) and returned to New York a year later to work with Jim Henson Productions on the TV series Dinosaurs! and the film The Muppet Christmas Carol.

After her time at Henson, Cheralyn worked with Paramount Production Services, creating costumes and props for Paramount properties such as The Star Trek Earth Tour, Titanic: The Movie on Tour, and Star Trek: The Experience at the Las Vegas Hilton. Some of her other credits include work (both behind and in front of the camera) on the feature films The Patriot, The New World, Evan Almighty, Leatherheads, and The Hunger Games, as well as work on the National Park Service film Manassas: End of Innocence currently showing at the Manassas battlefield park center. She was also a principal character in the History Channel docudrama "Isaac's Storm," which premiered in the fall of 2004 and can still occasionally be seen on THC. Other projects include work on the Emmy-award winning Showtime series Homeland, the Cinemax series Outcast, multiple commercials, and most recently the film The Eyes of Tammy Faye.

On the hobby side of things, Cheralyn is proud to be an active and long-time member of the international Star Wars costuming club the 501st Legion, serving as part of the Legion's history/archives team. She also works with The ShadowPlayers Stage Combat Group, demonstrating stage combat and the history of weaponry at festivals, school activities, and other events all along the Eastern Seaboard, and is certified in Quarterstaff stage combat with the Society of American Fight Directors.

Most recently Cheralyn has been expanding her writing career, combining her interest in paranormal research with her theatrical background which led to her first book, Haunted Theaters of the Carolinas, with Schiffer Publishing. Other of her books include The Well Dressed Puppet (Focal Press/Taylor & Francis, 2014), Creating the Character Costume: Tools, Tips, and Talks with Top Costumers and Cosplayers (Routledge, 2016), and her most recent book in her field, Introduction to Puppetry Arts (Routledge, 2019). She has also just written/illustrated her first fictional book 'Twas Halloween Evening: A Tale of the Zombie Apocalypse, now available through Prospective Press.