Dex pauses YouTube channel after 6 years to focus on acting, return not expected this year

Dex is stepping away from YouTube. On June 18, he posted a video titled 7년 유튜브 여정의 쉼표를 찍겠습니다 ("Putting a Comma on 7 Years of YouTube") announcing an indefinite hiatus from Dex101, where he's built roughly 1.16 million subscribers.

He launched the channel in 2020 right after military service. Six years in, and the timing feels wrong. "Actually, it's regrettable to be taking a break now," he said in the video. "This year our team has good chemistry and we've been doing what we want to do, so we were having the most fun with our activities."

For the farewell video, Dex brought YouTuber Mimiminu and chef Kwon Sung-jun (나폴리맛피아), winner of Netflix's 흑백요리사. "I wanted to do the last one with friends rather than alone," he said. "If I were alone, I didn't think I could comfort myself well."

Will he come back this year? No. "This is the first time I'm taking such a long break," Dex explained. "Even resting for a month or two, people forget in this industry. This is quite a big decision."

It's not one specific project pulling him away. "I'm not stopping to do something specific," he said. "When I thought about this job and the future, I need to make choices and focus. I felt coldly that my current position is somewhat ambiguous." His channel's identity—doing things freely, on his own terms—factored in too. "I want to do this enjoyably, not while being chased."

His agency confirmed a new acting project is in preparation for the second half of the year and flatly rejected retirement speculation. Dex has been building an acting résumé since last year, appearing in 타로: 일곱 장의 이야기, 아이쇼핑, and 사냥개들2. In 2025, he was nominated for the Baeksang Arts Awards Male Entertainment Award and won the Male Excellence Award at the MBC Entertainment Awards.

(He first broke through on 솔로지옥 2 as the mid-season wildcard, for anyone who needs the origin story.) The agency's statement was blunt: "He is not stopping entertainment activities at all. He is preparing a new project for the second half of the year, and is taking a break from his personal channel to focus on the project."