M. Night Shyamalan

Shyamalan in 2011, photo by Prphotos

Birth Name: Manoj Shyamalan

Place of Birth: Mahé, Puducherry, India

Date of Birth: 6 August, 1970

Ethnicity: Indian [Malayali, Tamil]

M. Night Shyamalan is an American director, screenwriter, producer, and actor. He has directed the films Praying with Anger, Wide Awake, The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, The Village, Lady in the Water, The Happening, The Last Airbender, After Earth, The Visit (2015), Split, Glass, Old, Knock at the Cabin, and Trap (2024). He also wrote all of his films, except for After Earth and Knock at the Cabin, both of which he co-wrote. He starred in Praying with Anger, and appeared in cameo roles in most of the rest. He has directed episodes, and served as showrunner, of the series Servant.

M. Night was born in Mahé, Puducherry, India, the son of Jayalakshmi and Nelliate C. Shyamalan. His father is of Malayali origin, from Mahé. His mother is of Tamil origin. His parents moved to the U.S. in the late 1960s, but his mother went back to India to give birth to him there. He spent a few weeks in Puducherry, before moving to the U.S. and growing up in Penn Valley, Pennsylvania. He was raised Hindu.

He added Night to his name in the early/mid 1990s.

M. Night is married to doctor, Bhavna Vaswani, with whom he has three children, including filmmaker Ishana Night Shyamalan, who has also worked on Servant; and R&B singer and songwriter Saleka Shyamalan.