Dean made his feature film acting debut with an uncredited appearance as a mountain climber in the 2000 adventure thriller Vertical Limit. This film also featured Star Trek: Deep Space Nine regular Alexander Siddig in his first film role. Dean's next film was the 2001 boxing drama Carman: The Champion, which starred Michael Nouri. He later worked as a day player on the films Deja Vu (with Bruce Greenwood), Reign Over Me (with Jonathan Banks and John de Lancie), and Freedom Writers (with Tim Halligan).