M. Night Shyamalan Biography

Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan’s suspense thriller The Sixth Sense (1999) was a surprise sensation that launched his career.

Raised in Philadelphia, Shyamalan studied filmmaking at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts.

His first two feature films, Praying with Anger (1992) and Wide Awake (1998, with Rosie O’Donnell) didn’t earn much at the box office, but The Sixth Sense (starring Bruce Willis) was one of that year’s top earners, and its surprise twist ending made it one of that year’s most-discussed films.

The Sixth Sense also launched the career of young actor Haley Joel Osment and received six Oscar nominations (including two for Shyamalan).

Although his next features failed to live up to the high expectations of many critics, they proved Shyamalan to be a skilled writer and director and furthered his reputation as a specialist in supernatural dramas. These other films included Unbreakable (2000, with Willis and Samuel L. Jackson), Signs (2002, starring Mel Gibson, The Village (2004, with Sigourney Weaver and Adrien Brody), and The Lady in the Water (2006, with Paul Giamatti).

Since then he’s established himself as a reliable producer of features with occasional hits and misses. Shyamalan’s other films include The Last Airbender (2010), The Visit (2015), Split (2016), Mr. Glass (2019) and Knock at the Cabin (2023).