In 2012, Carteris was elected executive vice president of SAG-AFTRA, a trade union representing over 100,000 actors and other professionals mainly in the United States.

[1] On April 9, 2016, Carteris was elected SAG-AFTRA president by national board to serve out the remainder of Howard's term.

While attending Redwood High School in Larkspur, California,[6] she took an interest in the arts, studying ballet and performing as a mime on a European tour at 16 years old.

This trend of playing significantly younger would continue when, in 1990, Carteris was cast in her best known role as studious school newspaper editor Andrea Zuckerman on Beverly Hills, 90210.

She worked regularly as an actor and voiceover artist, amassing a considerable amount of post 90210 credits in television, film, and video games.

Carteris became the executive vice president of SAG-AFTRA,[13] following the Screen Actors' Guild (SAG) and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) merger, in 2012.

[2] In 2020, she was on a third, two-year term as the president after defeating challengers such as Esai Morales in 2017 and Matthew Modine in 2019 both by direct votes of union membership.