Dex (entertainer)

2016–2020: Military service

In 2016, Dex entered the military as a non-commissioned officer in the 251st Class, Republic of Korea Navy and part of ROKN UDT (South Korean counterpart of the U.S Navy Seal), Class 62-2. He served for 4 years.^[1] During his active duty, he was assigned in the Special Mission Battalion of the Naval Special Warfare Flotilla, a counter-terrorism unit. In 2018, he was also assigned to the 13th Akh Unit, a dispatched unit of the Republic of Korea Armed Forces to the United Arab Emirates.^[2]

After being discharged from the military in 2020, he appeared in Fake Men 2, a military web entertainment show.^[3] In the same year, he appeared in MBC's game survival show Bloody Game.^[4]

2022–2023: Rising popularity

In 2022, Dex rose to fame when he participated in the second season of the Netflix dating show Single's Inferno. He was known as the "Catfish Man" (Korean: 메기남), who was brought in later to make the existing cast members stay together first and make the contestants nervous.^[5]

In 2023, he returned as a participant in the second season of Bloody Game for which he won the Rookie Male Entertainer Award at the 2nd Blue Dragon Series Awards.^[6] He joined the second and third seasons of the travel variety show Adventure by Accident as a regular member with Kian84, Pani Bottle, and Lee Si-eon.^[7] The show won several awards at the 2023 MBC Entertainment Awards, and Dex received the Rookie Award and the Best Couple Award.^[8]

Dex is also the sole host for the YouTube show Dex's Fridge Interview by Channel 117.^[9] He hosted the 2023 MBC Entertainment Awards with Jun Hyun-moo and Lee Se-young,^[10] and also joined the third, fourth, and fifth seasons of Single's Inferno as a panel member.^[11][12]

2024–present: Acting and motorcycle racing debut

Dex appeared in several variety shows in 2024, such as MBC's University Sports Festival: Boys' Athletes' Village, where he served as a coach to college sports athletes;^[13] Disney+'s The Zone: Survival Mission 3 with Yoo Jae-suk, SNSD's Kwon Yu-ri, and Dong Hyun Kim;^[14][15] and JTBC's My Name is Gabriel, where he experienced the life of Rati, a wine jar maker, for 72 hours.^[16] He also showed sibling-like chemistry on tvN's Fresh off the Sea with Yum Jung-ah, Park Jun-myun, and Ahn Eun-jin.^[17] The show became a trending topic every week of its broadcast and Dex was dubbed as the "Nation's Younger Brother".^[18]

Dex debuted as an actor in the third episode of Tarot: The Seven Chapter Story, a horror-thriller drama series.^[19] He used his real name, Kim Jin-young, as an actor, instead of his stage name, Dex, wanting to separate entertainment and acting.^[20] He then appeared in the second season of Netflix's Zombieverse, which premiered on November 19, 2024.^[21]

In 2025, Dex appeared in the action thriller The Defects as a main villain,^[22] and filmed special appeances for Bloodhounds: Season 2.^[23] On September 5, 2025, it was confirmed that Dex will play the lead role in the upcoming fantasy romance The Haunted House, a Korea-Japan joint global film project.^[24] The film is based on the short-story House of Ghosts from the book Dead-End Memories by the renowned Japanese author Banana Yoshimoto.^[25]

Films

Television series

Television shows

Web shows

Awards and nominations

State and cultural honors

Listicles