25 Years Later, Here's What Star Trek: Voyager Alum B'Elanna Torres' Career Looks Like Now

Here's a fun piece of trivia for you. Actress Roxann Dawson once appeared in a stalled pilot for a cop TV series called "NYPD Mounted," which was to star Dennis Franz, Dan Gauthier, and a sassy horse. Dawson's character, only a supporting role, was named Lieutenant Torres. This is a wild coincidence, as Dawson's most famous acting role was also for playing a character named Lieutenant Torres on "Star Trek: Voyager." Now that you know this, you may sally forth into the world and spread the Good Word. 

On "Star Trek: Voyager," Lieutenant B'Elanna Torres was a complex, rich character. Prior to the start of the series, she belonged to a terrorist organization called the Maquis, which fought against the Federation after a lazily negotiated agreement with the Cardassian Empire. By the end of the pilot episode of "Voyager," however, a crew of Maquis freedom fighters — including Torres — would have to join the crew of the title vessel, as they had no backup in a very remote region of space (some would call that a narrative mistake). Torres became the ship's chief engineer. 

Torres is also a woman of two worlds. She is half human and half Klingon, and constantly wrestles with her Klingon impulses toward anger and violence. Her mind is sharp, though, and she has a strong capacity for the technicals of a starship engine. Dawson appeared in 172 episodes of the series. 

Importantly, beginning in 1999, Dawson began directing episodes of "Star Trek: Voyager," which, in turn, led to her directing ten episodes of "Star Trek: Enterprise." Eventually, Dawson turned away from acting and began directing exclusively. She now enjoys a prolific directing career that has lasted to this very day, including dozens of TV shows and the 2019 feature film "Breakthrough." 

We've written on /Film before that many "Star Trek" actors became franchise directors, starting with "Star Trek III: The Search for Spock" and "Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home" back in the mid-1980s. Spock actor Leonard Nimoy helmed those movies. Then, in the early 1990s, actor Jonathan Frakes, who played Commander Riker on "Star Trek: The Next Generation," asked executive producer Rick Berman if he could start directing episodes, and he was granted permission. Berman (facetiously) began to regret letting Frakes direct, as many other Trek actors began to make similar requests. Patrick Stewart (Captain Picard) directed five episodes of "Next Generation." Over the years, LeVar Burton (Geordi La Forge) ended up directing 29 episodes of four different "Star Trek" shows. Frakes, to date, has directed 31 "Star Treks." 

Roxann Dawson's first directorial effort on "Star Trek: Voyager" was the episode "Riddles," which aired in November of 1999, during the show's sixth and penultimate season. The episode saw Tuvok (Tim Russ) attacked by a mysterious alien and begin to lose his memories and his emotional control. This led to her helming two additional episodes of "Voyager" in its seventh season, and, as mentioned, ten more episodes of "Enterprise."

After "Voyager," Dawson continued to act, appearing in shows like "Seven Days," "Without a Trace," and "The Closer," but one could see her passion for directing growing alongside her plentiful credits. She was brought on shows like "Charmed" and "The Division," and was even behind 12 episodes of "Crossing Jordan." Dawson hasn't acted on TV since 2011, but she is constantly calling "action" from the director's chair

Looking over Roxann Dawson's credits reveals a roadmap of the popular TV shows you were watching throughout the late '00s and '10s. She directed eight episodes of "Cold Case," three episodes of "Heroes," four episodes of "The Closer," and single episodes of "The OC," "Lost," "Lie to Me," "Caprica," etc., etc. She directed for "Treme," "The Good Wife," "The Mentalist," "Bates Motel," "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," "House of Cards," and "This is Us." 

In 2019, Dawson cast "This is Us" star Chrissy Metz in the Christian drama "Breakthrough," Dawson's feature directorial debut. That film was based on the book "The Impossible: The Miraculous Story of a Mother's Faith and Her Child's Resurrection" and tells the true tale of Joyce Smith, whose son John (Marcel Ruiz) falls into a frozen lake and remains under the water for 15 minutes before being fished out. John lives, however, and Joyce prays and prays for his recovery, facing her faith head-on. Miraculously, John fully recovers with all his mental faculties intact. "Breakthrough" was a hit, making over $50 million on a $14 million budget. Dawson has admitted in interviews that "Breakthrough" also marked a step in her own personal journey of faith, having moved from being an atheist to a Catholic.

And Dawson never stopped. Since "Breakthrough," she has directed episodes of "The Morning Show," "Penny Dreadful," "Foundation" (which Dawson selected over more "Star Trek"), and the Blake Crouch series "Dark Matter." She has also occasionally been a producer, overseeing shows like "Scandal," "Cold Case," and "Crossing Jordan." Dawson is now 67, and shows no sign of slowing, likely directing until she's ready to retire. These days, "Star Trek" is but a footnote in a much larger resume.