He entered freelancing after graduating with his masters degree from the University of Missouri School of Journalism, the world's first journalism program. While there, Charles interviewed convicts on death row and received a Sam Bronstein Prize in Journalism in April 2000. He also has interned for Scientific American in New York and United Press International in Washington, D.C.

Charles and his family immigrated from Hong Kong to New York when he was one, and he has lived nearly all of his life in the city, save for his stint in journalism school and in college in Florida, where he studied biology and the humanities. The first thing he ever wrote for his college paper appeared in the college textbook America Now.

Charles also has adventured to all seven continents, journeying to Lhasa, climbing Mount Kilimanjaro, investigating mummies in Russia, snorkeling with sea lions off the Galapagos, desert camping near Ayer's Rock, swimming around Antarctic ice and barreling from Arizona down the ghost of Route 66 to home in New York.

He is currently secretary of the New York AAJA chapter. His website can be reached at http://www.geocities.com/cqchoi.