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 (Mass Communications) 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!, a large purple bunny for the film The Net, and costumes for the SuperBowl XXVI Halftime Show, 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 Patriot, The New World, Evan Almighty, Leatherheads, The Hunger Games, Max, Homeland, and Outcast, as well as costuming work on the
National Park Service film Manassas: End
of Innocence. Her most recent work includes a co-starring role as Elsa Einstein on The Vampire Diaries spinoff show Legacies, as well as ongoing work on Charlotte-area sports mascots such as Hugo for the Charlotte Hornets (NBA) and Sir Purr of the Carolina Panthers (NFL).
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 at various times on the Legion's History/Archives and Public
Relations teams. In addition, she performs as a pirate re-enactor with The
ShadowPlayers Stage Combat Group, demonstrating choreographed stage
combat and speaking about the history of weapons at festivals, school
activities, and other community events all along the Eastern Seaboard.
For several years, Cheralyn has been expanding her writing career,
combining her interest in paranormal research with her theatrical background to
produce her first book, Haunted Theaters of the Carolinas, (Schiffer
Publishing) in 2009. Her second book, The Well Dressed Puppet (Routledge/Taylor & Francis, 2015)
focuses on her creative work, as does her next two books Creating the Character Costume: Tools, Tips, and Talks with Top Costumers and Cosplayers and Introduction to Puppetry Arts (both by Routledge/Taylor & Francis). She expanded into fiction with her first parody, 'Twas Halloween Evening: A Tale of the Zombie Apocalypse (Prospective Press, 2019), and is currently finalizing her latest book Art In The Time of Corona (Prospective Press), scheduled for publication in 2022.