For his performance as high school math teacher Jaime Escalante in Stand and Deliver (1988), he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor.

[2][3][4] His notable direction, production, and starring roles for films, made-for-TV movies, and TV shows include Wolfen, Triumph of the Spirit, Talent for the Game, American Me, The Burning Season, My Family/Mi Familia, Caught, 12 Angry Men, The Disappearance of Garcia Lorca, Walkout, The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit, American Family, and Dexter.

[1] He grew up wanting to be a professional baseball player, and at age 13 joined the Los Angeles Dodgers' farm system, as a catcher.

He left baseball at age 15 to join a rock and roll band, which caused a rift with his father, who was hurt by the decision.

While there he lost a race for Student Body President to future California Democratic Party Chair Art Torres.

In his teen years, he was the lead singer for a band he named Pacific Ocean, so called because it was to be "the biggest thing on the West Coast".

[9] In the late 1960s and the early 1970s, Olmos branched out from music into acting, appearing in many small productions, until his big break portraying the narrator, called "El Pachuco", in the play Zoot Suit, which dramatized the World War II-era rioting in California brought about by the tensions between Mexican-Americans and local police, called the Zoot Suit riots.

[10] In 1980, Olmos was cast in the post-apocalyptic science fiction film Virus (復活の日 Fukkatsu no Hi), directed by Kinji Fukasaku and based on a novel written by Sakyo Komatsu.

[11] From 1984 to 1989, he starred in his biggest role up to that date as the taciturn police Lieutenant Martin Castillo in the television series Miami Vice, opposite Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas, for which he was awarded a Golden Globe and an Emmy in 1985.

[12] Returning to film, Olmos became the first American-born Hispanic to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor,[13] in Stand and Deliver, for his portrayal of real-life math teacher Jaime Escalante.

[15] From 2003 to 2009, he starred as Commander William Adama in the Sci-Fi Channel's reimagined Battlestar Galactica miniseries, and in the television series that followed.

"[16] In 2006, he co-produced, directed, and played the bit part of Julian Nava in the HBO film about the 1968 Chicano Blowouts, Walkout.

[18] Olmos joined the cast of the television series Dexter for its sixth season, as a "brilliant, charismatic professor of religious studies".

[20] In 1967, Olmos – as Eddie James (vocals, keyboards) – formed the bluesy psyche rock band that would become Pacific Ocean,[21] who the following year released their self-titled, only LP.

In 1997, he co-founded the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival[27] with Marlene Dermer, George Hernandez and Kirk Whisler.

In 1999, Olmos was one of the driving forces that created Americanos: Latino Life in the U.S.,[29][30] a book project featuring over 30 award-winning photographers, later turned into a Smithsonian traveling exhibition, music CD and HBO special.

In 2001, he was arrested and spent 20 days in jail for taking part in the Navy-Vieques protests against United States Navy target practice bombings of the island of Vieques, Puerto Rico.

In 2015 Olmos contributed his voice to the Unity (film), which calls for a transformation in humanity's treatment of animals and the natural world.