Education: Bachelor's Degree of Science in Organic Chemistry, UCLA (1999); Master's Degree of Science in Pharmacology, UCLA (2001)
Dexter is, to put it mildly, a punk. He has his own view on society (human and Garou) and his place in it, and the best thing in his favor is he can provide a certain level of aid to the Bone Gnawers, both as a connected street individual and as someone working at the University. He owes his college education to his cousin, Troy, who made sure all of his aunt Luisa's children went to high school and got decent grades. Olivia and Kirk, Dexter's younger twin siblings, have recently graduated from college and begun their adult lives.
His father, Frederick, was not present in the household, and continues to be an absentee father. He is be no means the best example of a Garou parent, and the Zakaeda household was not a pleasent one most of the time.
Dexter proved to be very intelligent, and very unruly, as he grew older. He plowed through both his degrees in just over 5 years, but shortly after graduating with his MS and obtaining a job at a prestigious chemistry lab at UCLA, he was nailed by the DEA for producing ecstacy and crystal meth in off-hours. He was known as Dr. Mercury on the streets, a name he took to honor Jacob Chen, his cousin Troy's college roommate and the first Garou Dexter met that treated him with any level of respect and equality.
When Dexter wound up on the wrong side of the DA's ire, got an old college friend, Rhiannon MacKenzie, to step in, and with some finessing she managed to get Dexter a deal. It involved helping flush out El Mano Negro, a notorious cocaine and PCP dealer in Los Angeles. Dexter was undercover for several months, and at the end of the ordeal he'd almost been killed by Mano Negro's people. The gamble paid off, however, and Dexter escaped alive and only a little worse for wear, while Mano Negro and several of his associates are spending quality time in San Quentin.
Unfortunately, even with the charges dropped, Dexter was without a job. Troy put in a good word for him at Saint Claire City University, and that was enough to get him a position as a lab tech, helping with the teaching labs on the campus and some research projects. Despite this, Dexter was still the same wise-ass, uncompromising punk, and could be found wandering around late at night with his skateboard, smoking clove cigarettes and connecting with the streets he has never truly left behind, for all his higher education.
After some time in St. Claire, Dexter grew homesick, and as he was planning to make a break back to Los Angeles, Rhiannon and Francisco were recalled to the Sept. Dexter road in on their coattails, and has (through diligent work at SCCU obtaining letters of recommendation) obtained a position as a lab tech and teaching assistant at USC. He now lives in the Zakaeda family home with his mother, who has retired from her nursing job, and is attempting to enjoy the twilight years of her life.