Joshua Allen, the winner of “So You Think You Can Dance” Season 4, has died. He was 36.
Allen passed away on Tuesday, his family member confirmed to TMZ.
A cause of death was not given by Allen’s relative, who asked for “privacy and prayers.”
Allen’s dance community friend, Emmanuel Hurd, told TMZ he was shocked by the news. Hurd also remembered Allen as “a very honest, real person” who “didn’t always do things the way that everybody thought he should, but that’s why he was a winner.”
Allen’s final Instagram post from July 21 was a tribute to Malcolm-Jamal Warner after “The Cosby Show” actor died at age 54 after drowning on vacation in Costa Rica. Allen shared a photo of the duo and wrote, “Fly high King.”
Allen was 18 when he won the Fox reality competition show in 2008. The runner-up that season was Stephen “tWitch” Boss, who went on to be the DJ on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” Boss died of suicide at age 40 in Dec. 2022.
During an interview with Entertainment Weekly after he won the show, Allen said he and Boss “were really happy for each other” regarding the final results.
“We were two of the closest people there,” Allen added.
Allen also told EW that he had some dance experience before going on the show.
“I took a few modern dance classes, ballet classes, because I felt that to be a better dancer I would have to take different classes, and, you know, expand my horizons in the art of dance,” Allen explained. “I didn’t want to audition for the show not knowing anything. Dallas was [early in the auditions], and after I made it to Vegas — there were months before we actually went — I took as many classes as I could.”
“I really wasn’t that technically trained,” Allen continued. “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.”
After “SYTYCD,” Allen landed acting roles in 2010’s “Step Up 3D” and 2011’s “Footloose.” He also appeared in an episode of “American Horror Story” in 2011.
In 2016, Allen was charged with domestic violence in Los Angeles after being arrested for an incident involving his ex-girlfriend. After pleading no contest to the charges, Allen was sentenced to a year in county jail. He also received five years of formal probation and one year of domestic violence counseling, according to Deadline.
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