Joshua Allen, who won So You Think You Can Dance in 2008, has died. The Season 4 champion was just 34 years old. One of Allen’s family members confirmed his death to TMZ and said that he was struck and killed by a train.
“One of the last things he said was to keep God first at all times,” a family member told TMZ. “You have to be real with yourself before you can be real with anybody else.”
This devastating news comes less than three years after the passing of Stephen “tWitch” Boss, who was the runner-up on Allen’s season. The two developed a close friendship on the show and remained friends in the years afterwards.
Following news of tWitch’s death in December 2022, Allen took to Instagram to mourn his friend.
“To my brother: it’s hard for me to even write this message without breaking down, devastated would be an understatement,” he wrote. “I’ve been trying to find the right words for days now and nothing seems to fit right in order to express the pain of losing you! NO WORDS will ever be enough to explain the LOVE I have for you Stephen. You’re such a genuine and caring person ALWAYS showed love to anyone that came in contact with you.”
He went on to reflect on their first meeting in Las Vegas, adding, “We were sitting on the stairs getting ready to audition chatting about how nervous but hungry we were to get on the show and change the game. I knew from the beginning you’d do that.. You’ve inspired me from day one as well as so many others around the world.”
Allen also said he would miss tWitch’s “laugh, your hugs, the great talks, advice you gave, our endless inside jokes, the hand shakes,” and more. He vowed to “look after” his late friend’s family and concluded, “This isn’t goodbye more so I’ll see you later. IV’s UP…. IVREAL IVEVER!!!!!!!!!”
After winning the dance competition in 2008, Allen admitted to Entertainment Weekly, “I really wasn’t that technically trained. I would just try to take classes in the summer, and when it was school time I would take class, run track, play football. I would always just train in the summer. So it was never hard training.”
In 2016, Allen was arrested for domestic violence after an incident involving his girlfriend. He pled no contest to the charges and was sentenced to one year in jail in 2017, as well as five years probation and one year of domestic violence counseling, per Deadline.
Allen was in 2010’s Step Up 3D, appeared in the Footloose remake, and had roles on shows including Community and American Horror Story.
