In 2012, Carteris was elected as executive vice president of SAG-AFTRA, a trade union representing over 100,000 actors and other professionals mainly in the United States. She assumed the position of acting president of the union following the death of the previous president, Ken Howard, on March 23, 2016. On April 9, 2016, Carteris was elected SAG-AFTRA president. She was re-elected to the position in August, 2019.\n', 'Carteris was born in Scottsdale, Arizona, to Marlene, a realtor, and Ernest J. Carteris, a restaurant owner. She has a twin brother, James. Her father was of Greek ancestry whereas her mother is Jewish. Her parents separated six months after her birth. Carteris\'s mother moved with her children to San Francisco, California, where she set up a children\'s clothing store. While attending Redwood High School in Larkspur, California, she took an interest in the arts, studying ballet and performing as a mime on a European tour, at 16 years old. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College, in 1983, with a bachelor\'s degree in liberal arts.\n', 'After graduating from Sarah Lawrence College, Carteris\' early television career found her typically cast as a teenager in such fare as ABC Afterschool Specials, CBS Schoolbreak Special, and the long-running soap opera Another World. 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. At age 29, she was the oldest cast member to portray a 15-year-old.\n', '