Donald Paul Hahn (born November 26, 1955) is an American film producer who is credited with producing some of the most successful animated films in recent history, including Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (the first animated film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture) and The Lion King. Hahn is currently Executive Producer of Disneynature films, and owns his own film production company, Stone Circle Pictures. Early life Don Hahn was born in Chicago, Illinois. His father was a Lutheran minister. When Hahn was three, his family moved to Bellflower, California, where he went to school and shot his first animated shorts in the high school film club. His family then moved to Burbank, California when he was a teenager. He graduated from North Hollywood High School (where he was a drum major) in 1973, went on to study music at Los Angeles Valley College, and majored in Music and minored in fine art at California State University Northridge. At both colleges, he was also a drum major as he also was in the Royal Cavaliers Youth Band of Van Nuys, California. He was a percussionist in the Los Angeles Junior Philharmonic Orchestra. He worked as a drum head tester for Remo Inc. and was the percussion instructor at Notre Dame High School to put himself through college. Career He began his career in animation working for Disney Legend Wolfgang Reitherman as an assistant director on The Fox and the Hound. He worked closely with director Don Bluth on the production of Pete's Dragon and even worked in Bluth's garage on the animated short Banjo the Woodpile Cat. He later became production manager of The Black Cauldron (1985) and The Great Mouse Detective before moving on as an associate producer of Disney/Amblin's Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988). In 1989, Hahn made his first mark as producer for Disney and Amblin Entertainment's first Roger Rabbit short, Tummy Trouble, producing along with Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy, and Frank Marshall. He then became the producer for the benchmark animated feature, 1991's Beauty and the Beast, which was the first animated film to be nominated for the Oscar for Best Picture. His next production, 1994's The Lion King, set worldwide box office records for an animated film and quickly became the highest grossing traditionally animated film in history. In 1996 he produced The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and in 2000 he