Manoj Nelliyattu Shyamalan was born in Pondicherry, India on August 6, 1970. His family moved to the United States when he was young, settling in the suburbs of Philadelphia. He had a passion for films early on and was given a Super-8 Camera at the age of eight. By the time he was sixteen he had completed 45 short films. He attended a Catholic private school and Philadelphia's Episcopal Academy before becoming a film major at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. By the time Shyamalan had graduated from NYU in 1993 he had already written, directed and starred in his first feature film. "Praying With Anger," is the semi-autobiographical story about an Indian-American who returns to India to attend college. Shyamalan sold a second screenplay to Fox in 1993 for a project entitled "Labor of Love." The project failed to begin production reportedly because the studio was unwilling to put Shyamalan in the director's chair.

In 1995 a new independent film studio called Miramax bought Shyamalan's screenplay "Wide Awake" with the conditions that he direct it and that it be shot in Philadelphia. The film got respectable reviews when it opened in theaters in 1998, but did not attract a big following. In 1997 Shyamalan wrote the screenplay for "Stuart Little," a family film that featured the voice of Michael J. Fox as the animated mouse. By the time "Stuart Little" was released, Shyamalan had already released his third film. "The Sixth Sense" had become a hit earning $600 million dollars world-wide and was nominated for six Academy Awards. For his fourth feature film "Unbreakable" Shyamalan reportedly received a record sum of $5 million dollars. In 2001 Shyamalan sold a screenplay he wrote to Disney about a rural family who discovers crop circles on their farm. The film was very successful at the box office when it opened in July of 2002. His fourth film "The Village" was highly anticipated when it released in August of 2004. Unfortunately, "The Village" failed to gross as much as Shyamalan's first three films after movie-goers felt cheated by the twist at the end of this film. Shyamalan currently resides in Philadelphia with his wife Bhavna and his two children.  Hopefully M. Night Shyamalan will continue to produce wonderful films for years to come and solidify a wonderful career.

The Village (2004) - Writer, Director, Producer, Actor, Miscellaneous Crew (Executive Soundtrack Producer)

Signs (2002) - Writer, Director, Producer, Actor

Unbreakable (2000) - Writer, Director, Producer, Actor

The Sixth Sense (1999) - Writer, Director, Actor

Wide Awake (1998) - Writer, Director

Praying With Anger (1992) - Writer, Director, Producer, Actor

"The REALIZATION of what's coming is SCARIER than the actual VISUAL of a being." - M. Night Shyamalan (Signs DVD Extras)

"Think of MUSIC as an invisible ANIMAL in the room that you hear CRAWLING and MOVING around you. Your not sure where it is, but you FEEL THREATENED by it and it's going to ATTACK you. You don't know where IT is and when you FEEL like your going to get ATTACKED, it LEAVES the room." M. Night Shyamalan ( The Sixth Sense - Music used as an emotional context)

M. Night Shyamalan's Trademark Style & Personal Vision

M. Night Shyamalan is know for his twisted endings, a style he has perfected since "The Sixth Sense." They have all played pivotal roles in his films and have entangled audiences world-wide. The main characters have all experienced tramatic events; from Bruce Willis's character getting shot in "The Sixth Sense" to Mel Gibson's character losing his wife in "Signs." His films also tend to be religiously themed. He believe in playing with the audience psychologically by not showing us scary images, but rather making us think about what they could look like. He wants the audience to feel the emotions the characters feel in the film. In order to achieve this; music, camera angles, sound affects, and use of foreshadowing play pivotal roles in his films.

Personal Vision:

"My Hope Is We Broke So Many Rules We Created A New Rule." - M. Night Shyamalan

 http://www.studentske.sk/anglictina/M,_Night_Shyamalan;_biography.htm