Charise graduated from UC Berkeley where she double majored in Theater Arts and Political Science. At Berkeley she was the recipient of the Mark Goodson Prize for Distinguished Theatrical Talent and the Carol Jackson Upshaw Theater Scholarship. She also received the Laguna Beach Festival of the Arts Acting Scholarship and the MacGillavray-Freeman Films Acting Award. In the summer of 2001, she studied at the Actor’s Center in New York.

Charise is a Stephen Sondheim Fellow at the Brown/Trinity Rep Consortium, where she is expected to receive her MFA in 2009. She is currently rehearsing as a member of the ensemble for Trinity Rep's world premiere of Paris By Night. Previous roles at the Brown/TRC include Clytemnestra in Elektra, SkinheadGirl in Polaroid Stories, Nursie in Camino Real, Fanchette in Figaro and Kiosk Worker/Gulnara/Waitress in Bad Money.

Favorite roles played on the West Coast prior to graduate school include Elektra in Chuck Mee’s Orestes (CAL) Kate in Taming of the Shrew (CAL), Marina in Pericles (Subterranean Shakespeare), Maggie in Lend Me A Tenor (Grove Theater Center), Linda in Holiday (Newport Theater Arts Center) and Banquo/Hecate and others in a 5-person Macbeth (Globe of America).

Charise has taught numerous acting classes, theater workshops and summer drama festivals for children and young adults, from whom she learns over and over again the importance of imagination and play in art.