Don Hall

Don Hall is an American writer and film director currently employed at the Walt Disney Animation Studios. Born in Glenwood, Iowa, the Oscar Award-winning director is an alumnus of the California Institute of the Arts. The director’s own life is no less than the script of a Disney fairy-tale with the inbuilt message of hopes and dreams and persistence towards them.

His mother recounts that at a very tender age, being three or five maybe, Don announced that he wanted to work at Disney and be a film animator for them. And Voila! Now he is the director of Disney’s 54th animated movie, “Big Hero” and has an Academy Award to his name! Don’s journey is one of continuous perseverance and dedication. Owing to extensive research, Hall knew many Disney employees came from California Institute of the Arts.

He applied several times but didn’t get in. However, he got a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in drawing and painting from the University of Iowa in the meantime and decided to try one more time. After applying multiple times, he finally got in. Don graduated from the institute in the year 1995 and has been working with Disney ever since. However, he also worked with ‘DreamWorks’ for a brief period of 5 months but left the job and stuck to his childhood dream of working at Disney and has never left their side since then. Don made his debut in the Disney Industry with the 1999 movie “ Tarzan Click to look into! >> Read More... ” as a story writer.

The father of two had a childhood filled with Marvel comics, Disney stories and of course, Star Wars! Being a well-versed person in the animated world, he wanted to convert a Marvel comic into a memorable movie and after quite some reflection, decided upon the three-comic mini-series, “ Big Hero 6 Click to look into! >> Read More... ’. Don made his directorial debut with the movie “Winnie: The Pooh” and later directed “Big Hero 6” which won the Oscar for the Best Animated Feature in 2015.

Don has been involved with a lot of Disney films including “Tarzan” (1999) and “ Bolt Click to look into! >> Read More... ” (2008). He has also worked on the very popular Disney movie “The Princess and the Frog” released in 2009 and the very recent, “ Zootopia Click to look into! >> Read More... ” released in 2016. He has also been nominated for a range of prestigious awards including the BAFTA and the Annie Awards.