Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss and Ellen DeGeneres’ complete friendship timeline
The beloved DJ of “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” Stephen “tWitch” Boss, died by suicide at the age of 40 on Wednesday, The Post has confirmed.
The “So You Think You Can Dance” contestant and “Magic Mike XXL” actor died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, TMZ reported.
While he got his start as a contestant on MTV’s “The Wade Robson Project” in 2003 and rose to household name fame on “So You Think You Can Dance” in 2008, the TV personality is most widely known for his time spent with Degeneres, 64.
Boss started as a DJ on DeGeneres’ eponymous daytime series in 2014, eventually being elevated to an executive producer in 2020. He stayed with her until the embattled finale of the show in 2022.
Ellen opened up about the death of her friend Wednesday afternoon.
“I’m heartbroken,” DeGeneres, 64, said in a statement received by The Post.
“tWitch was pure love and light. He was my family, and I loved him with all my heart,” his longtime TV boss added. “I will miss him. Please send your love and support to Allison and his beautiful children — Weslie, Maddox, and Zaia.”
Here’s a look back at Boss’ friendship with DeGeneres.
Ellen joins Boss on season finale of ‘So You Think You Can Dance’
On the Season 7 finale of “SYTYCD” in 2010, DeGeneres surprised the audience with a performance alongside Boss to “Outta Your Mind” by Lil Jon and LMFAO.
Boss performed the routine with ballet dancer Alex Wong earlier in the season, and DeGeneres came back to reprise the dance in the finale in tribute to Wong.
Boss was a runner-up on the competition show on Season 4 in 2008. He appeared as an all-star on Seasons 7 through 9.
Boss joins ‘The Ellen DeGenerous Show’
Boss started making appearances on “Ellen” as a recurring guest DJ in 2014, acting as DeGeneres’ sidekick multiple times a week. He even served as DeGeneres’ co-host for just one day.
He nabbed a permanent spot on the daytime series later that year.
Ellen surprises Boss with billboard of himself
In 2018, DeGeneres surprised Boss with his own billboard.
“You’re my DJ, so I realized that all these other DJs have like huge billboards all over the city, all over the place, and you don’t,” DeGeneres said on her talk show at the time. “And they’re all the same — they’re angry, angry people with just a plain background.
“You deserve a billboard, although I can’t afford that,” she told him. “So what I did was I put you on a bus stop at Olive [Avenue in LA].”
After DeGeneres showed a picture of the bus stop — which depicted the DJ’s face on a shirtless body — Boss was laughing so hard he couldn’t speak.
Boss becomes co-executive producer of ‘Ellen’
After six years on the show as a DJ, DeGeneres elevated Boss to become co-executive producer in 2020 alongside longtime showrunners Mary Connelly, Andy Lassner and Derek Westervelt.
During the same summer Boss got promoted, the show got rid of three producers — Ed Glavin, Kevin Leman and Jonathan Norman.
Boss breaks silence on Ellen controversy
Boss defended his boss amid widespread allegations of toxicity on the talk show, claiming there was much “love” behind the scenes.
“We can’t speak too much legally about it, but I’ll say this, there’s been love,” the dancer, then 37, told Us Weekly in 2020. “Obviously there’s some things to address, but from my standpoint and from countless others, there’s been love. I’ll just leave it at that until there’s a time where we can address more publicly. There’s been love, and there will continue to be love.”
Ellen surprises Boss for his birthday
In September 2021, DeGeneres celebrated Boss’ birthday with a special surprise on the show.
She started off by wishing him a happy birthday and showing a montage of some of their best moments — which featured lots of videos of him on the show dancing, getting waxed, guest hosting and holding a snake.
“I am so very grateful that I get to look at your face every single day. I love you so much, tWitch, and I couldn’t do the show without you,” DeGeneres said in the video.
She then surprised him with a birthday cake brought out by his wife and kids.
Ellen gives special tribute to Boss at show’s end
Back in May, DeGeneres was supposed to showcase a montage on her show of the best celebrity moments — but she chose to honor Boss instead.
“Over a decade ago, I met someone who changed my life, and our show,” she said, bringing the DJ to tears. “You always make me smile and laugh and we put a little something together just to say how much we all love you here.”
DeGeneres then showed a video in tribute to Boss that started off with her in tears, saying, “I don’t want to say goodbye.”
Boss shares lessons from Ellen and comments on final season
In an August 2021 interview with Entertainment Tonight, Boss shared that he was feeling “happy” and “like celebrating” with the final season of “Ellen” coming up.
“Looking back on all of the years of kindness and giving back and changing lives and dance and all of that encapsulated — obviously there’s going to be tears for sure, there’s going to be happy tears but we’re gonna celebrate and I’m really excited about that,” he said at the time.
When asked what he learned from working alongside DeGeneres all these years, he said he has the same answer every time he’s asked this question.
“No matter how big you are, you still have to pay attention to what’s going on in your work,” he shared.