There are characters who can, in just a few seconds, make a film instantly recognizable. In Night at the Museum, among dinosaur skeletons and statues ready to step off their pedestals, one figure certainly stood out: Dexter, the tiny cappuccino-colored monkey who seemed to have a single objective: to make Larry Daley’s life impossible.
What happened to the monkey?
Behind Dexter there was a real Hollywood veteran. Her name is Crystal, a female capuchin, born on May 6, 1994. Today she is 32 years old and lives in Los Angeles County with her longtime trainer Tom Gunderson, with whom she has worked essentially since the start of her career.
The first Night at the Museum, released in 2006, is probably the role with which the public remembers her most. To prepare the scenes with Ben Stiller, Crystal was trained for weeks to perform some of the actions we see in the film, including the famous sequences in which Dexter slaps Larry. She later returned for the two sequels, appearing in Night at the Museum 2: Battle of the Smithsonian to portray not one but two monkeys, Dexter and Able.
From Night at the Museum to The Hangover
Night at the Museum represents only a small part of Crystal’s résumé. Her on-screen career began almost ten years earlier, in 1997, with George of the Jungle, and in the following years the monkey appeared in productions such as Dr. Dolittle, American Pie, Garfield: The Movie and A casa con i suoi.
In 2011 came another role: the drug-trafficking monkey in The Hangover Part II, alongside Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Zach Galifianakis.
Her popularity grew to such an extent that in 2012 NBC chose her to interpret Dr. Rizzo in the sitcom Animal Practice. For her work on the series she was reported to earn around $12,000 per episode.
In 2015 she even received a career recognition. At the Pawscars, the awards dedicated to animals in the showbiz world, Crystal received the Lifetime Diva Achievement Award after having appeared, already at that time, in around 25 films.
Up to Steven Spielberg
To think of Crystal only as the monkey from Night at the Museum would, therefore, be quite reductive. In 2022 she even stepped onto Steven Spielberg’s set with The Fabelmans, where she plays Bennie, the monkey that Mitzi brings home and presents to the family.
And it hasn’t been her last project either. In 2024 Crystal returned to the small screen in Bad Monkey, the Vince Vaughn series, where she played Driggs for nine episodes. Her résumé now counts more than thirty credits across cinema and television, spread over nearly three decades.
The news of her 32nd birthday has brought renewed attention to one of those faces that millions of viewers recognize without probably knowing the name. Because Crystal has spanned genres, franchises and generations: she has worked with Ben Stiller, Bradley Cooper, Matt Damon and Robin Williams and has reached the cinema of Spielberg.
And for those who grew up watching Larry Daley desperately trying to retrieve the keys from Dexter’s hands, discovering that that little rascal from Night at the Museum is still alive and has continued to work for nearly twenty years after the film makes those scenes even more incredible.
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