In the pilot of STV, Neelix and his Ocampan girlfriend Kes join the Voyager crew. Neelix offers his services as a guide to the Delta quadrant. He soon takes over the mess hall and becomes the Mess officer. As the series progresses, Neelix becomes more and more valuable to Voyager, and is promoted to morale officer and even ambassador.
Neelix leaves Voyager (as well as STV) in the seventh season episode "Homestead", in which he goes to live in a colony of exiled Thalaxians.