Beginning her career on stage in 1980's Off-Broadway play "Album", Pollan made her film debut in John Sayles' "Baby, It's You" (1983) and was featured that same year in the TV-movies "Trackdown: Finding the Goodbar Killer" (CBS) and "Sessions" (ABC). More TV work followed, and in 1985, the actress made her Broadway debut in "Pack of Lies" playing a British teenager whose neighbors may be spies. 1985 also marked the beginning of her recurring run on "Family Ties", where she played thoughtful college student Ellen, a headstrong liberal who won the heart of staunchly conservative capitalist Alex P Keaton. Here Pollan was cast opposite Fox, but sparks didn't initially fly. It was while filming the 1988 feature "Bright Lights, Big City" that the two became a couple. While starring on "Family Ties", Pollan, a graceful and poised actress with fresh-faced beauty, proved a versatile presence, ably portraying both cosmopolitan sophisticates and outdoorsy All-American characters. She impressed with more TV turns, playing a troubled young woman from a high-ranking family who turns to the streets in the 1986 "American Playhouse" (PBS) production "The Little Sister", and portraying an Olympic athlete kidnapped and forcibly held as her captor's wife in "The Abduction of Kari Swenson" (NBC, 1987). Her stirring performance in this fact-based TV-movie and her heartfelt turn in that year's independent drama "Promised Land" underlined the actress' appeal and displayed her capabilities.

Her next major role came in the ABC miniseries "The Kennedys of Massachusetts" (1990) where she played the clan's Kathleen. 1992 saw her return to the Broadway stage with a co-starring turn in Neil Simon's "Jake's Women". That same year she played a Hassidic woman with a checkered past whose jeweler fiance is murdered in the Sidney Lumet crime drama "A Stranger Among Us". In 1993 Pollan returned to the small screen, portraying a charming con woman who dupes men looking for their match through personal ads in the CBS TV-movie "Dying to Love You". She was cast alongside Peter Horton as the parents of two girls afflicted with a rare disease that prohibits them from daylight in the ABC TV-movie "Children of the Dark" that same year.

After a brief career hiatus, Pollan returned to series television with a guest stint on "Spin City" (ABC) in 1997, playing Renee, a former girlfriend of Fox's deputy mayor Michael Flaherty, a role she reprised in 1998. A guest turn in 2000 on the NBC drama series "Law & Order", however, not only featured the actress more prominently, it earned her an Emmy nomination for her strong portrayal of a rape victim unable to recover from the trauma and the fear accompanying her attacker's freedom Pollan displayed her notable dramatic skill with an emotionally gripping and appropriately controlled performance.