Charis Cotter grew up in downtown Toronto beside a cemetery and developed an early love of reading and acting at her local library, where she appeared in plays. She studied English in university and went to drama school in London, England. Cotter's series of biographies for children have received critical acclaim and her book, Toronto between Wars: Life in the City 1919-1939, won the Heritage Toronto Award of Excellence in 2005. Cotter has toured Canada from coast to coast, engaging children with her lively school presentations that feature games, storytelling and her entertaining alter egos: Queen Elizabeth II and the Scottish Silky Ghost.

She lives in a particularly haunted part of Newfoundland, where she has been working with children to publish their own books of traditional local ghost stories. The author lives in Western Bay, Newfoundland.