Cheralyn began creating her own costumes and creatures at an early age, when her mother finally refused to make any more odd costumes for her at Halloween.  She carried this obsession with her into college at UNC-Chapel Hill where, after having failed miserably as an Air Force Reservist, she decided to major in something much more useful such as Dramatic Arts and Radio/TV/Motion Pictures. Shortly after graduation, Cheralyn relocated to New York to study costumes, wigs, and make-up at the Juilliard School, and earned her first fifteen minutes of fame performing Off-Broadway with John Leguizamo in Mambo Mouth. She then moved to Minneapolis to help 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 in front of and behind the camera) on Mel Gibson's The Patriot, and costuming work on the Park Service historical film Manassas:  End of Innocence directed by Star Wars sound specialist Ben Burtt. She also appeared in the History Channel docudrama "Isaac's Storm.” In addition to her costume work, Cheralyn has served as playtester for the Star Wars RPG Mission to Lianna, and has written articles for such genre-related periodicals as Bjo Trimble's Sci-Fi Spotlight and Con-Tour Magazine.

Currently Cheralyn works as a free-lance puppet builder/performer in Charlotte, NC, and can occasionally be seen performing a baby chicken puppet in television commercials for Bojangles, as well as various non-puppet characters in other commercials.  Her first book, The Well Dressed Puppet, is scheduled for release by Grey Seal Press later this year.