Charity Dingle-Boyd (also Tate, Sharma and Macey) is a fictional character from the British television soap opera Emmerdale, played by Emma Atkins.

The actress began filming her first scenes in February 2000, and she made her first screen appearance as Charity during the episode broadcast on 30 March 2000.

The character has been involved in numerous high-profile storylines during her time on the show, such as her marriage to Chris Tate (Peter Amory), an affair with Chris's sister, Zoe Tate (Leah Bracknell), the arrival of her long-lost daughter Debbie Dingle (Charley Webb), her affair with Cain Dingle (Jeff Hordley), being framed by Chris for his death, giving birth to Noah Tate (Jack Downham) and her relationship with Tom King (Ken Farrington), which led to her exit on 1 March 2005.

During her second stint in Emmerdale, Charity's storylines focused on her relationship with Cain, their get-rich-quick schemes, and her job working with Jai Sharma (Chris Bisson), whom she later married and divorced.

Tom's daughter-in-law, Sadie King (Patsy Kensit), takes an instant dislike to Charity and tries to sabotage the plan.

Initially, she simply blackmails Jimmy but then plays the video at a party and Tom throws them out before begging her to give him another chance but she refuses, saying that she no longer loves him and leaves with Noah.

Charity helps Chas get revenge on Carl for cheating on her and begins working for Jai Sharma (Chris Bisson).

Refusing to accept Charity is with Jai, Cain starts attacking the Sharmas forcing them to call off their wedding when the threats become more severe.

However, Charity realizes the truth when Jai overreacts to an injury Archie sustains in an accident with a sparkler and ends the marriage, moving in with Debbie and her children.

Charity sees Declan attempting to commit suicide by burning down Home Farm, unaware that his sister Megan (Gaynor Faye) is inside.

Charity later decides to go ahead with a termination and offloads to her consultant, bursting into tears and telling her how she gave Debbie up for adoption.

Wracked with guilt, Megan tells Declan that she is resigning and will not move into Home Farm but Jai advises her to test Charity's intentions.

When Declan finds out about Charity's abortion, he keeps quiet and takes her away for a romantic break but tries to kill her, hitting her with a mallet and tries to shoot her with a flare gun.

Declan later returns and drugs Charity, while holding Megan, Jai, Cain, Debbie, Sam, Zak, Chas and Ashley hostage at the Sharma house.

To redeem herself to her family, Charity drives off with Maxine (Rebecca Manley), a woman who is blackmailing Cain's wife, Moira.

She gives birth to a baby boy and hands him to a social worker, telling them Debbie is the legal guardian until she is released from prison.

Eventually, Charity went into labour while escaping Bails' clutches and gave birth to a baby boy in hospital, however, he had to be rushed away as he was not breathing.

After reporting Bails to the police, Charity learns that her baby survived and he is called Ryan Stocks (James Moore).

[4] Her agent asked her if she wanted to audition for a role as a Dingle in Emmerdale and Atkins wondered whether she would be able to portray a member of that family, as she is so removed from those types of characters.

[4] On 26 July 2004, Kris Green of Digital Spy reported Atkins had quit Emmerdale, claiming that it was time to move on.

[7] On 18 March 2009, it was announced Atkins would be returning to Emmerdale as part of the ongoing overhaul of the show by series producer, Gavin Blyth.

[7] Two months later, Digital Spy's Kris Green reported Atkins had signed a six-month extension to her contract, keeping her with the show well into 2010.

"[10]During a 2001 interview with the Daily Mirror's Nina Myskow, Atkins said she loved playing Charity as she is a ballsy wild child who is not scared of anything.

[14] Atkins explained that Charity is the sort of person who does not know why she is in a village like Emmerdale, as she has "much bigger fish to fry" elsewhere.

[15] Charity's secret lover was revealed to be Chris's sister, Zoe (Leah Bracknell), during a special hour-long episode.

[12] For her portrayal of Charity, Atkins was nominated in the categories of Best Actress, Best Exit and Best Single Episode (for her wedding with Tom) at the 2005 British Soap Awards.

"[6] Steve Hendry of the Sunday Mail branded the Charity, Chris and Zoe storyline as "one of soapland's more bizarre love triangles.

"[20] Laura Morgan of All About Soap said that viewers should not count on Charity settling into married life with Jai, especially with Cain hanging around "like a bad smell".

[26] For her portrayal of Charity, Atkins was nominated for Best Soap Actor (Female) at the 2018 Digital Spy Reader Awards; she came in second place with 17.2% of the toal vote.

[27] In 2019, Atkins received a National Television Awards nomination in the Serial Drama Performance category for her portrayal of Charity.