Belafonte began her career as a model, becoming a successful cover girl model and appearing in commercials for Calvin Klein jeans. She made her feature film debut in 1982 in the movies "Time Walker" and "If You Could See What I Hear". She then worked as a production assistant and assistant director in public television on the East Coast before moving to Los Angeles, where she became an assistant to the publicist at Hanna-Barbera productions. While getting her hands wet "behind the scenes", she also received a number of modeling and commercial assignments, and was known to have appeared on the covers of over 300 magazines as of 2015. Other feature films include "Speed Zone", the made-for-television horror-comedy film "The Midnight Hour", in which she also sang a song titled "Get Dead", and "Fire, Ice and Dynamite".