Beltran graduated from
California State University, Fresno with a degree in Theater Arts and moved to
Los Angeles to begin his acting career. He had his first film role in
Zoot Suit in 1981, but his breakthrough came in 1982 when he played the
title character in the independently produced dark comedy
Eating Raoul. Beltran had a supporting role as
Chuck Norris' partner Trooper Kayo Ramos in the 1983 film
Lone Wolf McQuade. He then starred in the 1984 TV film
The Mystic Warrior as Native American brave Ahbleza, and as Hector in 1984's
Night of the Comet. He played Father Michael in a 1993 episode of
Murder She Wrote (S9, E12). He played
Commander Chakotay, the Native American first officer of the starship
Voyager, in the science-fiction television series
Star Trek: Voyager from 1995 to 2001. During this time, he won the Nosotros Golden Eagle Award for Outstanding Actor in a Television Series in 1997. He was also nominated in 1996 for the
NCLR Bravo Award for Outstanding Television Series Actor in a Crossover Role, and the
ALMA Award for Outstanding Individual Performance in a Television Series in a Crossover Role in 1998 and 1999. Beltran founded and co-directed the East LA Classic Theater Group. He is also a member of the Classical Theater Lab, an ensemble of professional actors who co-produced his production of
Hamlet in 1997, which he directed and starred in. Beltran has collaborated with amateur actors in performing plays and scenes of plays of
William Shakespeare. He produced and starred in a Los Angeles production of
The Big Knife by
Clifford Odets, a play which explores the Hollywood environment under the big studio system of the 1940s. In May 2009, Beltran played the dual roles of Don Fermin and Older Eusebio in the American Conservatory Theater's staging of José Rivera's
Boleros for the Disenchanted. He had the recurring role of Jerry Flute in Seasons 3 and 4 of HBO's
Big Love. ==Recordings==