Exclusive Joe Arce Photo: Happy Birthday to M. Night Shyamalan, Another Year ‘Old’

Submitted by PatrickMcD on August 6, 2021 - 8:59am

CHICAGO – Happy Birthday on August 6th, 2021, to the King of the Creepy Thriller, M. Night Shyamalan. The bold-faced-name director just released his 14th feature film, ”Old”, and has had a career of thrilling and perplexing audiences with his odd and mysterious films. He is 51 years young.

  Manoj Nelliyatu “M. Night” Shyamalan was born in India, and emigrated to the United States at only six weeks old. He graduated from New York University School of the Arts in the early 1990s, where he adopted the “M. Night” moniker. After the student film “Prayer with Anger,” his first studio distributed film was “Wide Awake” (1998).

M. Night Shyamalan, Chicago circa 2015
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com

His next film was the sensation “The Sixth Sense” (1999), followed in order from 2000-2008 with “Unbreakable,” “Signs,” “The Village,” “Lady in the Water” and “The Happening.” After a setback with the big budget tentpole films “The Last Airbender” (2010) and “After Earth” (2013), he went back to his mysterious style with “The Visit” (2015), Spilt (2016), and the “Unbreakable” sequel “Glass” (2019). “Old” was released on July 23rd, 2021. His forays as an executive producer in television include “Wayward Pines” (2015) and the current Apple TV series “Servant.”

Joe Arce photographed M. Night Shyamalan in 2015 at the C2E2 convention.

“Old” is currently in theaters. Featuring Gael Garcia Bernal, Vicky Krieps, Rufus Sewell, Alex Wolff and Thomasin McKenzie. Screenplay adapted and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. Rated “R”