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Dexter is the main character and protagonist of Dexter's Laboratory. He is a boy genius who has a secret laboratory. His intelligence makes him the brains of the family and he is one of the world's greatest inventors, having created countless weird and amazing machines and experiments. He is always working on new inventions and creations every day, but his sister Dee Dee is always breaking into his lab and destroying his work. The daily events surrounding Dexter's life mainly revolve around his relationship with his sister and everything that happens between the two.

Appearance
Dexter is a very short young boy who has curly red hair that was passed down to him from his mother He wears a pair of glasses that appear semi-circular at normal times, but when he widens his eyes, the tops of them round out. He wears a little white lab coat with black buttons on it. He also wears purple gloves, and a pair of black rubber zipper boots. Occasionally he may or may not wear a pair of black pants that match his boots. He speaks with a Russian accent despite the rest of his family not having any accents.

Personality
Dexter is an extremely intelligent boy (a self described "Boy Genius") who has been creating fantastic inventions since he was a baby. He considers Albert Einstein to be his greatest influence. He is normally in conflict with his sweet sister Dee Dee. Dexter, though highly intelligent, often fails at what he has set out to do when he becomes overexcited and makes careless choices. He manages to keep the lab a secret from his clueless, cheerful parents, who amusingly never notice any evidence of the laboratory, even when it was right before their eyes. Despite coming from a typical all-American family, Dexter speaks with a Russian accent (a reference to Genndy Tartakovsky's own accent that he spoke with during childhood and prank calls Rob Renzetti sent to Tartakovski while the two were at CalArts). Dexter's favorite superheros are Major Glory, Action Hank and Monkey (not realizing that Monkey is in fact his own lab monkey). Despite his great genius, Dexter is in fact very naive and occasionally very ignorant about certain subjects to the point where it seems like he lacks common sense; such examples of are his ignorance to the nature of girls, classic arcade machines and matters relating to nature, having not even known about famed biologist and friar Gregor Mendel the discoverer of DNA until Dee Dee told him, which clearly shows that despite his vast capabilities, Dexter is still a young and inexperienced child who lacks wisdom and experience. Dexter also has a huge ego which often clouds his judgement and has caused him to make rash and often morally questionable decisions, such as attacking Santa Claus due to his refusal to accept that he was real until the end, letting the Earth be destroyed do his inability to compromise with Mandark and even attempting to destroy Dee Dee for taking away his dream of saving the future, despite her having no malicious intent. As shown in Ego Trip, as Dexter grew older his personality went through numerous dramatic changes, such as the cowardly Number 12, the courageous Action Dexter and the wise but incredibly senile Old Man Dexter.

Relationships

 * Dee Dee - Dexter is normally in conflict with his sweet older sister, Dee Dee, who always mysteriously gains access to his lab no matter what he does to keep her out. Dee Dee eludes all manner of security and, once inside, delights in playing in the lab, often destroying all of his creations, often by pushing the wrong buttons on an invention. This is often preceded by Dee Dee asking "Oooooh, what does this button do?", without waiting for an answer. Despite her hyperactive personality, Dee Dee sometimes makes more logical decisions than Dexter, or even gives him helpful advice. Despite being excessively irritated with Dee Dee due to her constant interference and stupidity, Dexter still loves her and cares about her well being, and even saved her life numerous of times. However his anger towards Dee Dee often gets the best of him and it has resulted in him often trying to get her out of his life, due to the point of willingly giving her to aliens and even trying to destroy her in "Ego Trip" for stealing his role of savior of the future from him. But in the end, Dexter always somehow manages to forgive her and vice-versa and the two remained close siblings even into their elderly golden years.
 * Mandark - Dexter has a strong rivalry with Mandark which eventually developed into a deep hatred over time and the two became arch-enemies. The reason for this animosity is due to Mandark's attempts to constantly try to shut down or destroy Dexter's lab or even steal one of his inventions to prove that he is smarter than him. Although Mandark isn't as recurring of a conflict as Dee Dee is, Mandark is even worse of an enemy than Dee Dee. They sometimes compete to see who's smarter, and while Mandark was the superior mind when they first met, Dexter eventually proved to be superior and has continued to win against Mandark since their first meeting, although sometimes the two may end up in a draw, for instance in the episode where Monkey and Quackor were both fighting and Dexter and Mandark were going to turn them into class but both ended up failing. The rivalry between them eventually turned into one of pure hate and villainy when Dexter created his greatest work, the "Neurotomic Protocore" which could change the world. When Mandark realized the tremendous power this invention could give him, he turned into an evil and megalomaniacal villain who sought only power and the total destruction of Dexter at all costs.
 * Monkey - Dexter is always trying to make Monkey do something amazing but no matter what he does to him, Monkey just stays a mere monkey, but whenever Dex isn't looking, monkey changes into an amazing superhero and that power is somehow able to elude all of Dexter's most observant and flawless of machines. Dexter is not aware of his Monkey's superhero identity, which he idolizes as much as his other heroes.
 * Dad - Dexter's father normally tends to show favoritism to Dee Dee due to her athletic prowess, but will occasionally side with Dexter when facing a challenge between the sexes. Dad is also depicted as unreasonably hostile towards Dexter when he interferes with a sports-related activity such as watching the "biggest golf match of the year" or breaking his bowling trophy. Despite all this, Dad has proven to be closest to Dexter, to the point where he was more than happy to make Dexter "destroy" Dee Dee in a snowball competition and appeal to Dexter to give him his desired muffins to the point where he could seemingly control Dexter. He has also gone to great lengths to show his love for his son, showing that he has a very close bond with Dexter.
 * Mom - Dexter appears to be fairly close to his mother, and appears to have inherited his intellect from her side of the family (specifically from her [[Grandpa|father). He is sometimes embarrassed by her, such as when she kept causing a ruckus at a chess tournament in an effort to cheer him on and ended up getting him disqualified. However at times it has been shown that Dexter greatly fears her and she has shown to be even more hostile and harsh than Dad when it comes to punishments and may even become extremely angry over the slightest objection that Dexter may have.
 * Douglas E. Mordecai III - Douglas E. Mordecai III is Dexter's closest friend. He is a genius just like him, although Dexter appears to be the smarter of the two as Douglas doesn't seem have his own secret laboratory (at least not that we know of) so Douglas is only a nerd while Dexter is more of a super genius. Regardless, it appears that Douglas knows of Dexter's high-tech inventions and admires his buddy for them.
 * Koosalagoopagoop - At first, Dexter was incredibly annoyed with Koosy to the point where he tried "unplugging" him and imagining him away forever, but in the end, he realized that Koosy was indeed a sweet and loving creature and quickly hugged him before he disappeared, much to his regret. In seasons 3 and 4, Koosy and Dexter were reunited, but Dexter was once again hostile towards Koosy for unknown reasons, but in the end the two became friends once more.
 * Major Glory - Dexter is a huge fan of Major Glory. He regularly watches his show, reads his comic books, plays with his toys, and loves everything that's related to him. Major Glory is Dexter's entertainment idol. Dexter has even met Major Glory in person on certain occasions such as the episodes Star Spangled Sidekicks and Figure Not Included.
 * Action Hank - Next to Major Glory, Action Hank is an iconic character that Dexter is obsessed with and has a vast amount of respect and admiration for. Dexter loves watching Action Hank's show and desires to be just like him, a wish that eventually comes true in the far future. He has met him in person in the episodes Action Pack, A Beard to be Feared and Decode of Honor and the two became good friends that know each other well.

Voice
In the What-A-Cartoon shorts, Christine Cavanaugh served as the voice of Dexter, and returned to voice the character when the show was picked up, and remained on the show throughout the first two seasons, and the first few episodes of season 3. However, Cavanaugh retired from voice acting after the season 3 premiere, and was replaced by Candi Milo, which some fans did not immediately take to heart, as they claim she made Dexter's voice sound forced and cheesy. However, they noted an improvement in her rendition of Dexter in Season 4.

Quotes

 * "Dee Dee" - Various Episodes
 * "Ahhh, what a fine day for SCIENCE!" - Various Episodes
 * "Dee Dee! Get out of my laboratory!" - Various Episodes
 * "At last, my greatest creation is now completed!" - Various Episodes
 * "Dee Dee No! Don't push that button!" - Various Episodes
 * "SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UP!" - "Monstory"
 * "This better be important woman, you are interrupting my very delicate calculations." - "Deedeemensional"
 * "Ahhh, what a wonderful day for I Dexter, boy genius to be working in my laboratory." - "Opposites Attract"
 * "Success!" - Various episodes

Trivia

 * Dexter's voice actor is Christine Cavanaugh and Candi Milo in the series, but in Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion, it is Tara Strong, who is the voice of Bubbles from Cartoon Network's The Powerpuff Girls.
 * Dexter's last name has never been revealed throughout the entire series.
 * In the episode Go Dexter Family Go!, Dexter says his favorite color is orange, but in a previous episode he stated his favorite color was blue.
 * Dexter speaks with a Russian accent, although the rest of his family doesn't.
 * In "Ego Trip", his young adult self and his old man self didn't have Russian accents like he did, however his adult self did.
 * Dexter's Russian accent is a reference to the accent Genndy Tartakovsky used to speak with when he was a little kid.
 * Dexter's age is never mentioned in the series, but according to the song "Love According to Dexter", Dexter is said to be 8 years old.
 * Dexter's astrological sign was first shown to be Capricorn in the episode "A Hard Day's Day," but the season 3 episode "Mind Over Chatter" lists his birthday as March 24, which would actually make him an Aries.
 * However as seasons 3 and 4 were not overseen by series creator Genndy Tartakovsky, the validity of his birth date in said episode is questionable and was likely just an oversight by the staff in season 3.
 * In seasons 1 and 2, Dexter had a longer head and a double chin and there were two visible buttons on his lab coat, but in seasons 3 and 4, he had a shorter head, no double chin, and had only one visible button.
 * Although Dexter is the main character, there have been many episodes where he has not appeared.
 * Dexter has made many cameos in episodes of The Powerpuff Girls. The reason for this is possibly because the creator of The Powerpuff Girls, Craig McCracken helped with making Dexter's Laboratory before he created The Powerpuff Girls.
 * In the episode "Powerpuff Bluff" Dexter was seen sleeping with the other kids at Poakey Oaks Kindergarten.
 * In the episode "Criss Cross Crises" when Professor Utonium was switching peoples bodies trying to turn them back, one of the people Mrs. Bellum switched bodies with was Dexter.
 * In the episode "Forced Kin" when it showed the people that were looking up at Mojo Jojo's giant robot, one of them was Dexter.
 * In the episode "Ploys R Us", Professor Untonium was seen getting a stuffed toy of Dexter as well as stuffed toys of Dee Dee and Monkey.
 * In the episode "Dexter's Wacky Races" Dexter had a car that he invented in his laboratory that he was using in a race that has his parents in it. This means that he was exposing something from his lab to his mom and dad, although he and his parents were never directly in front of each other nor did they make any interaction with each other in the episode.
 * In the episode "Tribe Called Girl", Dee Dee said that Dexter had special needs, however whether she said this mockingly or if Dexter has an actual disorder remains uncertain.
 * Dexter's glasses are flat on top when he is feeling content or angry, but when he is shocked or scared, his glasses become rounded at the top.
 * He has appeared in a variety of Dial M for Monkey episodes such as, Magmanamus, Peltra, Simion, Quackor and Last But Not Beast.

Reference

 * Dexter Voices (Dexter's Laboratory) - Behind The Voice Actors