Stephen Boss, who parlayed an appearance on So You Think You Can Dance to a multihyphenate role as deejay, guest host and, eventually, executive producer on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, died December 13 at 40. The death was ruled a suicide.
Boss was known as tWitch.
He was born in Montgomery, Alabama in 1982, and got his nickname as a child because he could not sit still. He joined So You Think You Can Dance in 2008, and finished the season as the runner-up. He performed a hip-hop duet with DeGeneres, and spent nearly a decade on the daytime show. DeGeneres referred to Boss as “my sidekick.”
The Ellen DeGeneres Show ended earlier this year.
Boss was the announcer on the DeGeneres game show Ellen’s Game of Games. He was a judge on So You Think You Can Dance and hosted The Real Dirty Dancing on Fox earlier this year.
He married Allison Holker, whom he met when she was a contestant on So You Think You Can Dance.
Boss’s film work includes Magic Mike XXL and movies in the Step Up franchise.
Boss died in a Los Angeles motel room. ■
