In 1996, Kagan won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series for the Chicago Hope episode "Leave of Absence".
Other credits include the television movie Katherine: The Making of an American Revolutionary, which he also wrote, and Conspiracy: The Trial of the Chicago 8[4] for which he won the CableACE Award for Best Dramatic Special.
Other television films include The Ballad of Lucy Whipple,[4] Courage[4] with Sophia Loren, Scott Joplin, Descending Angel for HBO and for Showtime Color of Justice,[4] Bobbie's Girl,[4] and Crown Heights,[4] about the riots in 1991 which won the Humanitas Award in 2004 for "affirming the dignity of every person."
Kagan has made a number of short documentaries and advocacy dramatic films for NGOs including The Doe Fund which works with the homeless and formerly incarcerated, and The Democracy School a movement developing local governance, and Bioneers which advances achievements in environmental and social justice.
Kagan is a full tenured professor at the University of Southern California where he teaches the graduate courses in directing and has recently created the Center for Change Making Media which is a hub for research and training in advocacy cinematic genres.