His father was a physician, historian, and author Robert Martensen, and his mother, Anne Carver (b.

In 1992, Anne and her new husband Denis Sutro moved the family to Calistoga in Napa Valley.

[2] Carver made his acting debut as an eighth-grader when he played fairy trickster Puck in his school's production of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream.

The brothers also appeared together in season 3 of Teen Wolf on MTV as a pair of twin alpha werewolves – Charlie played Ethan Steiner, and Max played Aiden Steiner; Charlie also appeared in Season 6B of the show.

[8] Carver made his Broadway debut as Cowboy in the 2018 revival of Mart Crowley's The Boys in the Band and reprised the role in the 2020 film of the same name, alongside fellow actors Jim Parsons, Zachary Quinto, Matt Bomer, Andrew Rannells, Robin de Jesús, Tuc Watkins and Michael Benjamin Washington.