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.

He began his career in animation working for Disney Legend Wolfgang Reitherman as an assistant director on The Fox and the Hound.

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).

Hahn received his second Academy Award nomination that same year in the category of Best Animated Short for The Little Match Girl, an adaptation of the classic Hans Christian Andersen tale which was originally intended for inclusion in a version of Fantasia.

In 2010 he once again served as Executive Producer on “Oceans" the epic documentary on the seas, and 2011's "African Cats" from Disneynature.

[1] Three of his films have been adapted into stage musicals: Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King and The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

It offers a candid perspective of what happened in the creative ranks set against the dynamic tensions among the top leadership, Michael Eisner, Jeffrey Katzenberg and Roy E. Disney.

When Hahn took a year sabbatical from his job at Disney, he set out to make a very personal film about photographer Mike Carroll, one of the first photojournalists to uncover the pediatric AIDS epidemic in post communist eastern Europe.

[4] Hahn serves as executive producer of numerous Disneynature documentaries such as Earth, Oceans, and African Cats all of which placed in the top five nature movies of all time.

In the spring of 2009 Focal Press released the landmark book "Drawn to Life" by Walt Stanchfield which Don edited.

"Stanchfield was a brilliant teacher, and my personal mentor, and it's a thrill to be able to publish his work to inspire generations to come.