Joshua Allen’s final Facebook post before his tragic death this week was a heartbroken tribute to a late colleague.
Allen, who won season 4 of So You Think You Can Dance, died aged 36 on Tuesday, September 30 as a family member has declined to comment to TMZ how he passed. That same family member asked fans for ‘privacy and prayers.’
DailyMail.com has reached out to representatives for Allen and has yet to hear back.
Now it has emerged that the last time he posted to Facebook was in late July, eulogizing The Cosby Show star Malcolm-Jamal Warner.
Warner shockingly drowned on July 20 at the age of just 54 when he was swimming off the coast of Costa Rica and got caught in an undertow.
Four days later, Allen wrote a touching homage to his ‘childhood idol,’ whom he ‘got the opportunity to work with’ shortly after he shot to reality show fame.
Allen (pictured in LA in February 2011) originally auditioned for SYTYCD in Dallas, Texas along with his friend and fellow contestant, Comfort Fedoke
Both men guest-starred on a 2010 episode of Community, with Warner as Andre, the ex-husband of series regular Yvette Nicole Brown’s character Shirley.
When Andre performs a dance routine in order to charm Shirley, Allen can be seen as one of his trio of male backup performers.
‘The time I got the opportunity to work alongside my childhood idol. Malcolm you were so welcoming and humble,’ Allen wrote after Warner’s death in July.
‘I remember you saying “man you killed it on so you think you can dance you were great”. I was amazed that you knew my name and that you watched the show. This is a memory that I will always hold, dear to my heart. Thank you for spreading your love and always shine like the true star. You are resting in power my brother.’
After Allen’s own death this week, his friend Emmanuel Hurd told TMZ that he was ‘a very honest, real person.’
Hurd continued: ‘He didn’t always do things the way that everybody thought he should, but that’s why he was a winner.’
He is best known for winning the reality dancing competition show in 2008.
Allen actually won over Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss who was runner up on the show and they became good friends.
Now it has emerged that the last time he posted to Facebook was in late July, eulogizing Malcolm-Jamal Warner with a clip of them together on Community
After he earned the victory, he revealed at that he actually had no technical dance training as a kid but did work on a few things before his audition (he is seen on SYTYCD in 2008)
Boss – who went on to become DJ and executive producer of The Ellen DeGeneres Show – died by suicide at age 40 in December 2022.
Of their relationship at the time Allen commented: ‘We were really happy for each other. We were two of the closest people there.’
Allen originally auditioned for SYTYCD in Dallas, Texas along with his friend and fellow contestant, Comfort Fedoke.
He ultimately was crowned on August 7, 2008 and earned the cash prize of $250,000.
After he earned the victory, he revealed at that he actually had no technical dance training as a kid but did work on a few things before his audition.
Allen told Entertainment Weekly: ‘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 expand my horizons in the art of dance.
‘I didn’t want to audition for the show not knowing anything.’
Allen actually won over Stephen ‘tWitch’ Boss (pictured right) who was runner up on the show and they became good friends; they are seen flanking fellow season 4 contestant Katee Shean in LA back in May 2006
He is pictured on SYTYCD with Virgil Gadson in September 2014
He is pictured celebrating his 36th birthday back in March
After nailing his audition, there were months before he moved to Las Vegas ahead of the live shows so he strategically spent that time taking ‘as many classes as I could’ which certainly paid off.
He said: ‘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.’
He did find success on the big screen after his SYTYCD win as he was a featured dancer in 2010 flick Step Up 3D in addition to the Footloose remake in 2011.
He also took part as a dancer and choreographer in Oxygen’s Dance Your Ass Off back in 2010 and even had acting roles on television shows Community and American Horror Story.
Allen made headlines again in 2016 for a domestic violence arrest involving an ex-girlfriend.
He was ultimately sentenced to one year in jail after pleading no contest to the charges and received five years probation in addition to one year of domestic violence counseling according to Deadline.
