[5] Carlson broke into professional theater with the Negro Ensemble Company in New York, then spent a season at the Repertory Theatre in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

[4] Off-Broadway productions in which she appeared include The Harangues (1969), The Death of Lord Chatterly (1973), Miss Julie (1973), Demons: A Possession (1974), Winner Take All (1975) and Light Up the Sky (1990).

[7] Carlson starred on Westside Medical,[5] portrayed Katie McKenna on Kaz[8] and appeared on Murder One.

In the episode "Hotel Oceanview" of the series WKRP in Cincinnati, which premiered on November 28, 1980, Carlson played a woman attracted to station salesman Herb Tarlek (Frank Bonner).

He is deeply shaken when she tells him that they were on the football team together in high school, she having since undergone a sex change.