Don Hahn (born November 26, 1955) is an American film producer, director, and author best known for his extensive career at Walt Disney Animation Studios, where he produced several critically acclaimed and commercially successful animated feature films, including Beauty and the Beast (1991)—the first animated film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture—and The Lion King (1994), one of the highest-grossing animated films of all time.[1][2]Born in Chicago, Illinois, and raised in Southern California, Hahn developed an early interest in music and art, studying those subjects at California State University, Northridge, while also participating in the Los Angeles Junior Philharmonic during high school.[1][3] He joined The Walt Disney Company in 1976 through a summer internship, initially working as an inbetweener on the hybrid live-action/animated film Pete's Dragon (1977) and later serving as an assistant director under Disney Legend Wolfgang Reitherman on projects like The Fox and the Hound (1981).[1][3]Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, Hahn rose to prominence as a producer, contributing to the Disney Renaissance era with key roles on films such as Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988), a groundbreaking blend of live-action and animation that revitalized the studio's animation division, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996).[2]