Manoj Shyamalan (; born 6 August 1970), known professionally as M. Night Shyamalan, is an Indian-American screenwriter, film director, producer and occasional actor known for making movies with contemporary supernatural plots. His major films include the supernatural thriller The Sixth Sense (1999), the superhero drama thriller Unbreakable (2000), the science fiction thriller Signs (2002), the psychological thriller The Village (2004), the fantasy thriller Lady in the Water (2006), the fantasy adventure film The Last Airbender (2010), and the sci-fi action adventure film After Earth (2013). He is also known for filming and setting his movies in and around Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where he was raised, and for including unexpected plot twists in most of his films. Most of Shyamalan's commercially successful films were co-produced and released by the Walt Disney Studios' Touchstone and Hollywood film imprints. In 2008, Shyamalan was awarded the Padma Shri by the government of India.
