Doner was born in Detroit, Michigan and grew up in the nearby village Franklin, though he and his family moved to SoHo, New York City when he was nine years old.
He first became interested in writing when he visited an abandoned gas station called Space 2B which had been remodeled into a poetry and performance space where he listened to writers such as Pedro Pietri and Allen Ginsberg reading their work.
[2] Doner attended Harvard University, majoring in Biological Anthropology and Psychology and taking a number of film as literature classes.
[1][2] Doner's first feature was the 1997 made-for-television movie Legend of the Lost Tomb, based on Walter Dean Myers' young adult adventure novel.
He wrote the adapted screenplay after working as a location accountant on the set of White Wolves II: Legend of the Wild, produced by Julie Corman, who he showed his experimental short scripts.