Before The Sixth Sense made M. Night Shyamalan a household name, Bhavna Vaswani was the one paying the bills. She held therapist positions at two Philadelphia university counseling centers and did clinical work with sexual abuse survivors while her husband spent those years trying to get his films produced. The Sixth Sense came out in 1999. She had been a practicing clinical psychologist for years by then.
She co-founded the M. Night Shyamalan Foundation in 2001 and has run its operations ever since. The foundation backs grassroots leaders working against trafficking and modern slavery across several continents. She describes the work publicly as social justice, not charity.
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Who Is Bhavna Vaswani?
Bhavna Vaswani Shyamalan is an Indian-American clinical psychologist and philanthropist based in the Philadelphia area. She holds a doctorate in clinical developmental psychology from Bryn Mawr College and co-founded the M. Night Shyamalan Foundation in 2001, where she serves as vice president. She is married to filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan and co-owns Vibe Vault Fit, a wellness studio in Exton, Pennsylvania.
| Born | September 1, India |
| Background | Sindhi; family held Ugandan-British citizenship |
| Education | BA Psychology, New York University ยท PhD Clinical Developmental Psychology, Bryn Mawr College |
| Married | M. Night Shyamalan (1993) |
| Foundation Role | Co-Founder and Vice President, M. Night Shyamalan Foundation |
| Based | Philadelphia area, Pennsylvania |
| Studio | Vibe Vault Fit, Exton, Pennsylvania |
Born in India, Expelled From Uganda
Her parents were Ugandan-British citizens of Sindhi descent who traveled to India for the birth of their daughter, wanting the child to have a connection to the country. The family returned to Uganda shortly after.
In 1972, Idi Amin issued an expulsion order against Uganda’s South Asian population. Roughly 50,000 people received ninety days to leave the country. The Vaswani family was among them. They relocated to Hong Kong, then under British colonial administration, where her father started an import-export business and she attended school under the British curriculum.
When the business failed, the family moved to the United States, where her father had secured work. She was seventeen years old and had lived on three continents.
How Bhavna Vaswani Met M. Night Shyamalan
She enrolled at New York University, where she studied psychology. M. Night Shyamalan was studying film. After they first met, he reportedly told his roommate he had found the woman he was going to marry. She was in another relationship and turned him down. They remained friends for the better part of a year. By 1993, they were married and living in Philadelphia, where he had grown up.
She was the household’s main income source in those early years, while M. Night worked toward a career in film. She held clinical positions at the counseling centers of Swarthmore College and St. Joseph’s University, and did clinical work with young sexual abuse survivors at a Philadelphia practice. She earned her doctorate in clinical developmental psychology from Bryn Mawr College at the same time.
The M. Night Shyamalan Foundation
Vaswani and M. Night Shyamalan co-founded the M. Night Shyamalan Foundation in 2001. Headquartered in Newtown Square, Pennsylvania, the organization funds leaders working in communities affected by poverty, trafficking, and modern slavery. She serves as co-founder and vice president, overseeing grantmaking, international partnerships, fundraising, and long-term direction.
The original model was straightforward: scholarships for teenagers in underserved communities. After nearly a decade of watching results, she concluded it was not working. The structural barriers in those teenagers’ lives stayed intact after the funding ended.
The foundation reworked its model. It moved away from targeting individual outcomes and toward finding grassroots leaders who were already operating inside struggling communities with established local trust, and backing them with unrestricted funding, strategic support, and long-term partnership.
Her description of the approach, published on the foundation’s website:
“Creating a foundation was about social justice not charity. We feel that charity implies a hierarchy and an approach to giving that is driven by a sense of pity. Pity fails to acknowledge the strength of the person in front of you or their power to change their own lives.”
She cites two philosophies the foundation operates from: the Indian sage Ramana Maharshi’s teaching that “there are no others,” and the South African concept of Ubuntu: “I am what I am because of who we all are.”
The foundation’s primary focus at present is modern slavery and human trafficking, work she has described publicly as serving the “forgotten and ‘disposable’ people.”
The Leaders the Foundation Backs
Support from the MNS Foundation goes beyond grant money. Each partnership involves long-term strategic guidance, network access, and what Vaswani has described as a permanent relationship with the organization.
Current and former grantees include:
- Valentino Achak Deng (South Sudan): one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, now building educational programs inside the country
- James Kofi Annan (Ghana): anti-child slavery and child trafficking work
- R. Evon Idahosa (Nigeria): founder of Pathfinders Justice Initiative, serving sex trafficking survivors in Edo State
- Raymond John (Philadelphia, USA): founder of 12 Plus, helping high school students access college and career opportunities
The foundation operates across the United States, sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Central America.
Shyamaween
Since 2014, the foundation has held an annual Halloween fundraiser in Philadelphia called Shyamaween. The series skipped 2020 and returned in 2021. The 10th Annual took place on October 26, 2024, at The Fillmore. Vaswani addresses the crowd directly at each event, speaking on the foundation’s work in human trafficking and modern slavery while the Halloween party runs around her.
Vibe Vault Fit
Outside the foundation, Vaswani co-owns Vibe Vault Fit, a boutique fitness and wellness studio in Exton, Pennsylvania. She has been teaching dance fitness classes since 2011 and is known at the studio as “Dr. B.”
Studio offerings include:
- Dance Fitness and Zumba
- Yoga and Meditation
- Barre and HIIT
- 305 Fitness and Pound
She also hosts the “Vibe Vault Unlocked” podcast. Her stated approach to wellness: “Wellness, like happiness, is a mindset.”
Her Three Daughters
Vaswani and M. Night Shyamalan have three daughters, all raised in the Philadelphia suburbs.
Saleka Shyamalan, who records as Saleka Night, is a singer and songwriter. She released her debut album Seance in 2022 and wrote original music for her father’s 2021 film Old.
Ishana Night Shyamalan is a filmmaker. She directed episodes of Apple TV+’s Servant before making her feature debut with The Watchers in 2024, produced by her father and starring Dakota Fanning.
Shivani Shyamalan, the youngest, keeps a private profile.
On her daughters’ growing involvement in the foundation’s work, Vaswani told City Lifestyle Magazine: “This has always been a family effort and now that they’re adults, it’s fun to get more input from them and keep them engaged. They have wonderful ideas and are passionate about this work.”
In April 2026, the Philadelphia Inquirer placed Vaswani and M. Night Shyamalan at a baby shower in Kensington for a couple connected to Raymond John’s 12 Plus program. The piece was not about her.
She has never called it charity.
