9 ‘So You Think You Can Dance’ Alums Who Found Fame After the Show
So You Think You Can Dance will soon make a jeté back onto Fox after nearly two years off the air. The network recently ordered an 18th season — set to debut on March 4 — with Cat Deeley returning as host and EP Nigel Lythgoe holding forth at the judge’ table alongside Dancing With the Stars’ Maksim Chmerkovskiy and former SYTYCD contestant Allison Holker. (Comfort Fedoke, another SYTYCD alum, is also on board as a guest judge.)
Since 2005, the reality competition has been shining the spotlight on dancers of all stripes, some of whom use the opportunity to launch a showbiz career. “The show gave dancers a huge platform,” Holker told The New York Times in 2021. “It put our stories at the forefront. And there weren’t a lot of places for that elsewhere.”
Take the nine ex-contestants below, for instance. Like Holker, they didn’t give up the spotlight after leaving the So You Think You Can Dance stage.
Stephen “tWitch” Boss
This Season 4 runner-up, who died in 2022, became Ellen DeGeneres’ sidekick both on The Ellen DeGeneres Show and on Ellen’s Game of Games. He married the aforementioned Holker in 2013.
Witney Carson
Carson has served as a pro dancer for more than a dozen Dancing With the Stars seasons so far, including Season 19, which she and Alfonso Ribeiro won.
Other SYTYCD contestants who have become DWTS pros include Lindsay Arnold, Alan Bersten, Dmitry Chaplin, Artem Chigvinsev, JT Church, Chelsie Hightower, Jenna Johnson, Jake Monreal, and Lacey Schwimmer.
Ariana DeBose
DeBose is arguably the most famous SYTYCD alum, despite going home first during Season 6. She earned a Tony Award nomination for her work in Broadway’s Summer: The Donna Summer Musical and won an Academy Award for playing Anita in the 2021 film West Side Story. She also voices Asha in the new Disney film Wish.
Nico Greetham
Greetham, who competed in Season 10, played Cal Cambon in FX’s American Horror Story: Double Feature then appeared in two episodes of the spinoff American Horror Stories. He also recurred in the third season of Love, Victor. Coming up, the dancer-turned-actor will star in the indie dramedy Something Casual.
Jess King
This SYTYCD Season 4 alum has a degree of notoriety among Sex and the City fans: She played Allegra, the Peloton instructor whose class proved to be Mr. Big’s (Chris Noth) undoing on And Just Like That…. In real life, King is indeed a Peloton instructor, and she has nearly a half-million Instagram followers.
Jeanine Mason
So You Think You Can Dance’s Season 5 champion moved on to a TV acting career, with a recurring role as Dr. Sam Bello on Grey’s Anatomy, a lead role as Liz Ortecho on Roswell, New Mexico, and a starring role as Karina on Upload.
Tate McRae
McRae, who was just 13 when she competed on So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation in 2016, has launched a successful pop career, with her track “Greedy” — the first single from her second studio album, Think Later — peaking at No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 this month.
Melanie Moore
The show’s Season 8 victor, meanwhile, has been all over Broadway, playing Peter Pan in Finding Neverland, Chava in Fiddler on the Roof, and Ermengarde in Hello, Dolly! She also played Scout Finch in the touring production of To Kill a Mockingbird for more than a year.
Heather Morris
Morris missed the cut for the Top 20 of So You Think You Can Dance’s second season, but she went on to star as Brittany S. Pierce in Glee. More recently, she competed in Dancing With the Stars Season 4 and won the second season of the U.K. version of The Masked Dancer.
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