After graduating from
Sarah Lawrence College, Carteris's 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 characters would continue, when in 1990, she 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, lying about her age to get the part. By 1993, while working for the show, her GABCO Productions company signed a deal with
Rysher TPE. In 1995, Carteris left the series and became the host of her own television talk show,
Gabrielle, which lasted only one season. Following this, she worked regularly as an actor and voiceover artist, amassing a considerable amount of post-
90210 credits in television, film, and video games. She became a mainstay in television films, starring in nearly a dozen of them. Her first,
Seduced and Betrayed, was released in 1995. She became a regular presence on network television, appearing in episodes of series such as
Touched by an Angel,
King of the Hill,
NYPD Blue,
JAG,
Criminal Minds, and
NCIS, among others. She has appeared in several feature films. Carteris also provided the voice for the
Motorola intelligent assistant "
Mya." In 2019, Carteris appeared on Fox's
BH90210 reboot, appearing both as Andrea Zuckerman and herself. The fictionalized version of herself was portrayed as sexually questioning and engaged in a brief relationship with former
90210 guest-star turned fictional Fox executive
Christine Elise. ==SAG-AFTRA==