An all-district athlete at Columbus (Texas) High School, Charles Harris attended college on a football scholarship. Encouraged to audition for a play by his college speech teacher, Harris discovered that he enjoyed acting. Over the next decade, he appeared in over forty college and regional theater productions, performing with such classic Hollywood stars as Pat O'Brien, Linda Darnell, John Kerr, and Carole Cook and such stars-to-be as Larry Pine and David Selby. After completing a PhD in English, Harris set aside acting and entered academia, where he professed for over three decades, chaired his department for fifteen years, and wrote the usual quota of scholarly books and articles. Upon his retirement from university life, he was encouraged by his daughter, the actor/playwright Kymberly Harris, to try his hand at film. Harris has become a familiar figure in the Chicago independent film world, acting in numerous films, Web series, and TV commercials.