When she was 15, Charny skipped school to go to an audition, gaining a role as a "Shark" girl in a production of
West Side Story that toured Australia. Her first big break came in early 1965, when she was cast as one of the featured dancers in the weekly
NBC musical variety series
Hullabaloo, which aired until spring of 1966. In 1967, she guest starred on
That Girl as Donald's computer-match "date". She was the lead female dancer in "The Rich Man's Frug" sequence in the original Broadway production of
Sweet Charity and reprised the role in the
movie version (1969). From 1970 to 1986, she frequently appeared on television shows including
The Night Stalker,
Kojak,
The Rockford Files,
Starsky & Hutch,
The Incredible Hulk and others. Charny is also a sculptor. Her figural work is based on her career as a dancer and includes representations of dancers in motion. She notes that growing up in
Brooklyn, she was inspired to model the human form by watching her father build larger-than-life nude sand sculptures at
Brighton Beach. ==Awards and honors==