Charles started his career in entertainment at the age of 6 with his big brother Will in a singing act that played weekly on television for 5 years. They recorded and made really embarrassing personal appearances on a number of national variety shows.

Charles dropped out of high school in mid grade 12 (his teachers felt he lacked drive) and made his way to the West Coast where quite by chance he got a job working in a photo-lab. He became intrigued with the story-telling power of still photography, an interest that quickly grew into a desire to make the pictures move. He applied to Capilano College, convinced them to overlook his horrendous high school grades and lack of a diploma, and began a general arts degree with an emphasis on communications and film.

Charles applied for and received transfer credit to Vancouver's Simon Fraser University Film Workshop — a school that had trained filmmakers like Phillip Borsos (The Grey Fox) and Sandy Wilson (My American Cousin).

At film school, Charles was greatly influenced by avant-garde filmmaker Al Razutis and experimental sound researcher Barry Truax. Although he always favoured populist movies like Witness and Chinatown over the exclusively intellectual art house films admired by many film school academics, he believes passionately in the nobility and intelligence of the general audience. One of the first TV producers to hire Charles told him: "TV is a sausage factory, so don't get too arty, kid." His response: "There's no law says we can't try to make really good sausages."

The time at film school convinced Charles that film was both the most difficult and challenging as well as the most effective means of telling stories to the mass audience. He also acquired technical skills that would carry him through lean times when no directing work was to be found. Prior to graduation, he directed his first commercial film, a documentary for the National Film Board of Canada. The film — Tiers... a Story of the Penitentiary was very well received at film festivals throughout the Pacific Northwest and was released nationally as a theatrical short. After graduating he worked at sound design, picture editing and music scoring. Charles made a living, won awards, and became familiar with the powerful contributions these disciplines can make in telling a filmed story.

While shooting his second documentary — also for the NFB — Charles came to the startling realization that his project was so small nobody was looking over his shoulder. The crew and Charles decided to shoot a feature at the same time, secretly. The documentary — The Little Town That Did - was released to considerable acclaim and festival recognition. The feature — My Kind of Town - received a national theatrical release, won awards and nominations at various festivals and returned substantial revenue to the investors. Although the critics were mostly kind, Charles regards the film as a deeply flawed work with a few remarkable moments. Regardless, the film launched him as a dramatic director. Most importantly, he got the girl. The female lead of the film, Tina Schliessler, and Charles have been together ever since and have three wonderful children.

Charles has since directed six independent features, which have opened festivals, won awards, earned respectable revenue, and continue to screen internationally on television and video. He's done numerous TV movies and episodes, most of which live on in re-runs. He's also continued writing feature length screenplays, Five have been produced to date.