There’s a particular melancholy that comes when you gaze back at an actress who once existed in your childhood living room and then didn’t. April Lerman—Lila Pembroke—lived there for all of 22 episodes of Charles in Charge before vanishing. But that vanishing was the start, not the end, of a more grounded, quietly purposeful story.
The Pembrokes Disappear
In 1984, Charles in Charge introduced the Pembroke family, including April Lerman as their teenage daughter, Lila. She was the sharp-eyed conscience of a sitcom that never quite took itself too seriously. Then the show was canceled, revived in syndication… and the Pembrokes were gone, replaced by another family as if erased from memory. April Lerman didn’t get a second act in that sitcom universe. Instead, she got something much less glamorous: silence.
The Afterlife of Fame
Post–Charles in Charge, April followed the typical path of a former child actress: single-episode roles on Kate & Allie, Growing Pains, Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, and a spot in the film Rock and Roll Fantasy (1992). Then she stepped away from acting entirely—not because of scandal or burnout, but seemingly out of choice.
She briefly attended Pepperdine University School of Law, was admitted to the California Bar in 1995—but declined to practice because it “would have been too stressful.” She later returned to education—earning a master’s in Counseling Psychology and a bachelor’s in English.
Therapist vs. Teen Sitcom Star
Today, April Haney practices therapy, working primarily with children and adolescents, though her experience spans the spectrum: depression, anxiety, addiction, low self-esteem, trauma, family chaos, grief, abuse, job loss—you name it.
Before that, she served as a school counselor—deeply familiar with the emotional fallout of bullying, peer pressure, and isolation. She also provided psychotherapy to adults of diverse backgrounds. She’s been described as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Intern, but other sources also affirm she’s a fully licensed marriage and family therapist in California.
In a way, she may have ended up with the happiest ending of all: not a punchline, not a tragedy, but a career where people remember her for who she is now, not who she once played.
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