M. Night Shyamalan

M. Night Shyamalan Biography

M. Night Shyamalan is an Indian born American film director and producer. He makes movies with supernatural plots with a twist ending climax. His original name is Manoj Nelliyattu Syamalan. His first film was Praying with Anger in 1992 when he was a student of New York University. His second movie was Wide Awake in 1995 and this was not successful.

He was born on 6th August 1970 in Mahe, Puducherry in India. His father is Nelliyattu C. Shyamalan and his mother is Jayalakshmi. Both of them are doctors by profession. In 1960s after the birth of their first child Veena, they moved to the United States. M. Night Shyamalan was raised in Penn Valley of Pennsylvania in the suburban region of Philadelphia. He attended the Roman Catholic grammar school Waldron Mercy Academy. Then he studied at Episcopal Academy in Merion, Pennsylvania. He earned Merit Scholarship of New York University in 1988. He was graduated in 1992 from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in Manhattan.

He wanted to become a filmmaker from his earlier days. He was given a Super-8 camera at a young age. His father wanted to make him a doctor but his mother encouraged him to choose his own profession. He released 45 home movies by the time he was 17. He included at least one scene from these childhood films in his later movies. He married the psychologist Bhavna Vaswani who was a fellow student at New York University. He has two daughters.

He started his film production company, Blinding Edge Pictures. He gained international recognition after his film The Sixth Sense and this was nominated for six Academy awards.  His film Unbreakable in 2000 got positive reviews. In 2002, his film Signs was a great success. His fantasy film was Lady in the Water in 2006. He got some negative reviews for the film The Happening. The Last Airbender in 2010 won 5 Razzie Awards and was a box office success. Many of his successful films were co-produced by Disney’s Touchstone Pictures.

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Updated: January 06, 2018