In case you hadn’t heard, the cast of Friends have reunited nearly 20 years after the beloved sitcom went off the air. While the special, Friends: The Reunion, will air on Thursday 27 May in the UK and US, the excitement has catapulted the show, which originally aired from 1994 to 2004, back into the cultural conversation.
While the original cast – Jennifer Aniston, Courtney Cox, David Schwimmer, Matthew Perry, Matt LeBlanc, and Lisa Kudrow – are all perfectly available to stalk on various social-media platforms, one has to wonder: what ever happened to Marcel, the capuchin monkey belonging to Ross (Schwimmer)?
First, here’s a brief recap of Marcel’s time on Friends.
Marcel famously appeared in eight early Friends episodes, including The One With the Monkey and The One Where the Monkey Gets Away. (He could also be counted on to hit “play” on “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” and defecate in the girls’ shoes.)
Ultimately, Ross adopts Marcel out to the San Diego Zoo, but the next time he’s reunited with his former pet, he finds out that Marcel has become a famous animal actor, appearing in the latest Jean-Claude Van Damme movie.
But whatever happened to Marcel the monkey in real life? What has he been up to since leaving Friends?
Well, Marcel is actually played by a female capuchin named Katie. After appearing on Friends, Katie popped up on 30 Rock and a 2006 sitcom called The Loop.
According to IMDb, Katie’s last TV role was in 2013 on Nickelodeon’s sitcom Sam & Cat (starring Ariana Grande). These days, she works as a mascot for Los Angeles’ baseball team, the LA Angels.
Back in 1995, Schwimmer opened up about working with Katie, admitting to Entertainment Weekly that he “hated” it.
”The trainers won’t let me bond with it,” Schwimmer said. ”They’re really, really possessive. It’s like, ‘Land on your marks, do your job, don’t touch or bond with the monkey.’ It’s a bummer.”
More recently, LeBlanc talked about Katie the monkey in a 2019 interview with Jimmy Kimmel. “I bought [the monkey] at an auction,” LeBlanc joked. “No, the monkey was … I liked the monkey. I like animals. The monkey was really cool. Schwimmer not so much.”
