Born in
Wellington, Charles studied art at the
Victoria University of Wellington. At the same time, he played jazz music in the university club. During his studies, he worked as a newspaper journalist and as a programmer for the New Zealand Broadcasting Service. With a
Bachelor of Music degree, he returned to NZBC and worked as a producer and director. With experience directing a television play in 1973 and directing two episodes of a comedy series, he moved to Australia in 1974 and composed the music for his first television film,
The God Boy. The director with whom Charles worked most often in his career was jazz trumpeter and filmmaker
Geoff Murphy. Their acquaintance dates back to 1966 and Murphy's first film, the unfinished children's musical
The Magic Hammer. The two starred together as part of the 1970s touring group
Blerta and on the Murphy-directed TV show of the same name. Together they turned to the realization of several New Zealand cinema projects in the late 1979s and early 1980s. While Murphy was directing, Charles composed the soundtracks to the films
Goodbye Pork Pie, for which Charles wrote a jazz score, the Māori drama
Utu, which has a predominantly symphonic score, and the dystopian, award-winning science fiction drama
The Quiet Earth, in which he also processed avant-garde and experimental sounds in addition to symphonic ones. Director Murphy and leading actor
Bruno Lawrence received several awards for the film
The Quiet Earth, including the
New Zealand Film and TV Award. Finally, in 2004, the mystery drama
Spooked starring
Cliff Curtis was created, the last joint work by Charles and Murphy. ==Select filmography==