Crystal the Monkey

Crystal (born May 6, 1994) is a female tufted capuchin monkey and animal actress, acquired and trained by Birds & Animals Unlimited, Hollywood's largest supplier of animals. Her acting career began as a baby monkey in Disney's 1997 film George of the Jungle. She has portrayed monkey Dexter in the Night at the Museum franchise, a drug-dealing monkey in The Hangover Part II, and pet monkey Bennie in Steven Spielberg's 2022 semi-autobiographical film The Fabelmans. In 2012, she played Dr. Rizzo on the sitcom Animal Practice. Acting career Universal Studios In 1996, Birds & Animals Unlimited, the largest furnisher of animals to Hollywood, sent one of its trainers to purchase a capuchin monkey in Florida. Birds & Animals prefers to begin training younger monkeys, optimally those close to one year old. Audacious two-and-half-year-old Crystal, whose canine teeth had begun showing, was offered. The trainer ultimately decided to buy Crystal and two younger capuchin monkeys as well. Three employees received the three monkeys. Crystal was given to Tom Gunderson, an employee who had only been with the company for a few years and had been primarily working at Universal Studios Florida's Animal Actors stage show. Gunderson had let the other two employees select their monkeys first and was left with the oldest, Crystal. He named her Crystal, a namesake to a country music singer Crystal Gayle. New York magazine's Benjamin Wallace wrote, "It was like she was born to perform." Gunderson and Crystal worked together for eight years at the Animal Actors stage show. Because the show was marked by pyrotechnics and noisy, cheering audiences, Gunderson said it was "a boot camp" and "a great way for a monkey to grow up and become habituated for this kind of environment". Unlike the majority of monkeys who were bothered by high volume music and children, Crystal was remarkably mature. Rather than destroy a stuffed animal as any other monkey would do, she preferred to groom herself and work the levers of a child's activity center.