Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss dead at 40: Ellen pays tribute to Fairytale Weddings host

Ellen DeGeneres has led the tributes to dancer and DJ Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss following his death at the age of 40.

Boss’s death was confirmed by his wife Allison Holker. She told People magazine that “he was the backbone of our family, the best husband and father, and an inspiration to his fans”.

The cause of death has been determined as a gunshot wound to the head, according to the Los Angeles Medical Examiner.

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The Los Angeles Police Department told the BBC that officers from the West Valley Division had responded to an “ambulance death investigation” radio call at a motel on Ventura Boulevard on Tuesday. “There were no signs of foul play,” the broadcaster reported.

Boss “rose to fame” as a contestant on MTV’s The Wade Robson Project before becoming a runner-up on Star Search, said People. He later competed on So You Think You Can Dance and was a judge this year.

He was also the DJ and dance-in-residence on The Ellen DeGeneres Show, which he joined in 2014, and was made an executive producer in 2020.

In a Twitter post yesterday, DeGeneres said she was “heartbroken” by his death. Boss was “pure love and light”, she wrote, adding: “He was my family, and I loved him with all my heart. I will miss him.”

Former US first lady Michelle Obama tweeted that her “heart goes out to his wife, Allison, and his three children during this difficult time”. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson wrote that Boss was a “great guy” and urged his family to “stay strong”.

Boss married Holker, a professional dancer, in 2013 and they hosted Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings together. Holker told TMZ that her late husband had “lit up every room he stepped into” and “valued family, friends and community above all else and leading with love and light was everything to him”.