Charlotte Coleman was born in London. Her mother was the actress Ann Beach, and her father the TV producer Francis Coleman. Her younger sister, actress Lisa Coleman, appeared in Casualty as Jude. Coleman went to the Anna Scher Theatre school in Islington, North London, because she said she was "too cool" to go to the Brownies.

When she was 15, feeling that her upbringing to that point had been too liberal (her parents "didn't believe in restraint"), she used her earnings to enrol in Dartington Hall school in Devon (ironically a very progressive school where students "didn't have to go to any lessons, so I didn't. I spent 15 grand, all my money) and it was just stupid really."

Coleman's first major TV role was as Sue in Southern Television's Worzel Gummidge. This ran for four series (and a Christmas special) from 1978 to 1981 on the ITV network.

Early TV roles included A Choice of Evils (BBC Play for Today, 1977) and Two People (LWT, 1979, as Emma Moffatt). She had a crush on Stephen Garlick, her co-star in Two People. For the role, she had to choose a stuffed toy for Emma to carry; she named it "Haggis" and still had it when interviewed in 1990.

In 1990, Coleman appeared as Jess, a girl from Lancashire brought up by a strict Pentecostal mother, in the acclaimed BBC television drama Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, based on Jeanette Winterson's novel of the same name. Coleman won a Royal Television Society, Best Actress award for her portrayal of the young lesbian character.

She is best remembered by cinema-goers as Scarlett, Charles's punk flatmate, in the film Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994). She died of an asthma attack in 2001 at the age of 33 years.