Ted Perkins

Ted Perkins is the CEO and founder of Recovery Movie Meetups, an innovative program that transforms Hollywood films into structured, clinically meaningful mutual support experiences for addiction and mental health treatment. A longtime Hollywood screenwriter and media executive, his work bridges storytelling and behavioral health, using film to spark insight, emotional engagement, and lasting change.

Perkins created Recovery Movie Meetups out of his own lived experience with alcohol use disorder, depression, and the psychological toll of constant “what-if” thinking—both personally and professionally as a writer. Drawing on the principles of cinematherapy, he developed a model that uses carefully curated films to help individuals explore addiction, mental health challenges, and recovery in a more accessible and less confrontational way.

His program is now used in hundreds of treatment centers, recovery community organizations, sober homes, schools, and correctional settings across the United States and Canada. By combining film with guided discussion and structured workbooks, Perkins has created a scalable approach that helps participants identify with characters, examine their own behaviors, and engage more deeply in the recovery process.

He is also the author of Addicted in Film: Movies We Love About the Habits We Hate, and continues to advance the use of narrative and visual storytelling as powerful tools for self-reflection, connection, and transformation in behavioral health.