In 1977, Bob Fosse cast her in the lead role of Velma Kelly in the first national tour of the musical Chicago.
Primarily a stage actress, her one major film role was the 1989 comedy See No Evil, Hear No Evil, in which she played Adele, the long-suffering sister of Richard Pryor's character.
[3][6] Childs subsequently turned to writing her own theatrical productions, beginning with the semi-autobiographical work The Bubbly Black Girl Sheds Her Chameleon Skin (2000),[7][8] an off-Broadway musical that received an Obie Award.
[9] Her other musicals include Miracle Brothers (2005),[10] Funked Up Fairy Tales (2007),[11] and Bella: An American Tall Tale (2016), a winner of the Weston Playhouse New Musical Award.
[12][13] Childs has also served as an assistant professor in New York University Tisch School of the Arts' Graduate Musical Theatre Writing program.