M. Night Shyamalan | Biography, Movies, & Facts (2024)

M. Night Shyamalan (born August 6, 1970, Pondicherry [now Puduch*erry], India.) is an Indian-born American director, screenwriter, and actor who emerged during the late 1990s and became best known for creating psychological thrillers that explore supernatural themes. Some of Shyamalan’s films are famous for their shocking plot twists. His major works include The Sixth Sense (1999), Unbreakable (2000), Signs (2002), The Village (2004), and Split (2016).

(Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.)

Manoj was the son of Indian-born physicians Nelliate C. and Jayalakshmi Shyamalan. Although his parents had moved to the United States after the birth of his elder sister, Veena, Jayalakshmi spent the latter part of her pregnancy with Manoj in India, where she gave birth to him in Pondicherry (now Puduch*erry). Some six weeks later mother and son joined his father and sister in Penn Valley, a suburb of Philadelphia. During his childhood, Manoj was given an 8-mm movie camera, and by the time he completed high school he had made 45 home movies (from some of which he later took clips to use as special features on DVDs of his theatrically released films). He attended the film school at New York University (NYU), where he began to refer to himself as M. Night Shyamalan, and graduated in 1992.

Shyamalan made his first feature-length film, Praying with Anger (1992), while he was still a student at NYU. It starred Shyamalan himself as an Indian-born American who returns to the subcontinent to explore the cultural differences between India and the United States. The production was named debut film of the year by the American Film Institute in 1993. Shyamalan’s second feature film, Wide Awake (1998), explored a child’s relationship with God after the death of his grandfather. Though the film featured a slate of relatively well-known actors, a combination of poor reviews and a limited release resulted in a lacklustre box-office showing. During this period, Shyamalan also worked on other filmmakers’ screenplays, including that for an adaptation of American writer E.B. White’s classic children’s book Stuart Little (1999).

The Sixth Sense, about a boy who reveals to his psychologist that he can speak with the dead, was Shyamalan’s breakout film, and it was the first of several productions in which he created a twist ending. He penned the story in 1995, and he and his agent pitched the screenplay to Hollywood studios in 1997. The film, starring American actors Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment and Australian actor Toni Collette, became the sleeper hit of the summer of 1999. It grossed in excess of $670 million worldwide, which more than made up for its $40 million budget. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including those for best original screenplay and best director.

Other successful films followed, including Unbreakable (2000), a superhero story about a train wreck victim (Willis) who, after suffering no injuries, realizes that he possesses special powers; Signs (2002), a science-fiction thriller about a preacher (Mel Gibson) who, after losing his faith, must contend with an alien invasion; and The Village (2004), a Gothic tale about an isolated community that guards itself from unknown forces in the woods beyond. Shyamalan’s subsequent films, Lady in the Water (2006), The Happening (2008), The Last Airbender (2010), and After Earth (2013), were widely panned by critics. However, he was able to reestablish his reputation for good storytelling and compelling character development in The Visit (2015) and Split (2016), the latter being a sequel to Unbreakable.

Shyamalan’s later works include Glass (2019), which is the second Unbreakable sequel, and Old (2021). In Knock at the Cabin (2023), a vacationing family is told that one of them must be sacrificed to avert an impending apocalypse. In addition, Shyamalan served as an executive producer of the television series Servant (2019– ) and directed four episodes.

Shyamalan’s films are known for certain visual hallmarks, including a mix of third-person and first-person perspectives, reflections, the use of doorways and other portals to frame shots, and careful use of the colour red to emphasize important characters, objects, and locations. Major characters in his films tend to be quiet and introspective, which helps to set the mood and provide a starting point from which suspense can build. Shyamalan himself has made cameo appearances in several of his films, and he is known for having set many of his productions in or around Philadelphia.