diff --git a/lib/ejs.js b/lib/ejs.js
index e8fa21ba..a23fe69f 100755
--- a/lib/ejs.js
+++ b/lib/ejs.js
@@ -641,7 +641,7 @@ Template.prototype = {
         e.message += ' while compiling ejs\n\n';
         e.message += 'If the above error is not helpful, you may want to try EJS-Lint:\n';
         e.message += 'https://github.com/RyanZim/EJS-Lint';
-        if (!e.async) {
+        if (!opts.async) {
           e.message += '\n';
           e.message += 'Or, if you meant to create an async function, pass async: true as an option.';
         }
@@ -905,12 +905,25 @@ exports.escapeXML = utils.escapeXML;
  * Express.js support.
  *
  * This is an alias for {@link module:ejs.renderFile}, in order to support
- * Express.js out-of-the-box.
+ * Express.js out-of-the-box. If rendered using async, a wrapper callback
+ * is passed to {@link module:ejs.renderFile} that waits until the returned
+ * promise is resolved and passes the result to Express.js
  *
  * @func
  */
 
-exports.__express = exports.renderFile;
+exports.__express = function (file, opts, callback) {
+  if (opts.async) {
+    exports.renderFile(file, opts, function (err, promise) {
+      promise.then(function (data) {
+        callback(err, data);
+      });
+    });
+  }
+  else {
+    exports.renderFile(file, opts, callback);
+  }
+};
 
 // Add require support
 /* istanbul ignore else */