Ganesh began his acting career by appearing in television serials. It including
Antariksh and
Mayavi, which was the first known 3D serial in Tamil television. He made his film début with
The Angrez (2006), an experimental crossover film shot in
Hyderabadi Urdu but he could not garner any further film offers immediately. Subsequently, he made his début in Tamil cinema with
Radha Mohan's family drama,
Abhiyum Naanum (2008). He was cast in the role of Trisha's Punjabi fiancé, this role received critical acclaim. He appeared as a police officer, working alongside
Mohanlal,
Kamal Haasan and
Venkatesh in the bilingual film
Unnaipol Oruvan (2009), while he also portrayed an army general in
Mohanlal Starrer
Major Ravi's war film
Kandahar. He also worked in a thriller film titled
Muriyadi with
Sathyaraj by
Selva, but the film failed to have a theatrical release owing to
Kavithalayaa Productions' financial troubles. During the period, Ganesh also opted out of another multi-starrer
Mankatha (2011), and instead chose to work on another bilingual Tamil and Hindi film,
Panithuli (2012), in a solo lead role. The film opened to negative reviews and performed poorly at the box office.Then he played antagonist in
Nagarjuna Starrer
Damarukam. Ganesh worked on three projects in 2013, prioritising his work on Tamil cinema. He appeared in
Sundar C's bilingual film,
Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru in a supporting role of an office worker, while he was seen as a police officer in the action film,
Ivan Veramathiri. He also portrayed the role of a prince in
Roopa Iyer's Kannada and Tamil bilingual film,
Chandra, and revealed that he signed on after hearing that
Shriya Saran would be portraying the lead role. Ganesh subsequently worked on a few low budget films, the psychological thriller
Achaaram (2015) and the drama
Pallikoodam Pogamale (2015), both of which had limited theatrical releases. During the same year, he also portrayed a supporting role in
Mohan Raja's
Thani Oruvan (2015), which went on to become a success. His following his releases have fared less well with
Thodari (2016) and
Nayaki (2016), where he portrayed the antagonist, earning negative reviews and performing poorly at the box office. Likewise, neither of his subsequent investigative thriller films
Inayathalam (2017) or
7 Naatkal (2017) were able to perform well commercially. For his role in
Inayathalam, Ganesh spent time with the Chennai cyber-crime division to prepare for his character. Ganesh also played a negative role in the 2018 Malayalam film,
My Story, and won acclaim. Ganesh Venkatraman in making his Bollywood debut as the antagonist of
Guns of Banaras (2020), the Hindi remake of
Polladhavan. Ganesh Venkatraman is gearing up to grace the small screen once again, this time he will be seen as the lead in the upcoming TV serial
Ninaithen Vandhai. He has played in the role of a police officer in the thriller,
The Door (2025). He plays a psychologist In the long delayed movie
Un Paarvayil (2025). ==Other work==