Perkins was born James Ripley Osgood Robert Perkins II in New York City. He is a graduate of Los Angeles' Harvard-Westlake School and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from New York University. He attended NYU with Star Trek executive producers Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof, although Kurtzman and Lindelof did not know each other at the time. Perkins' father died from complications of AIDS on 12 September 1992; his mother was killed in the September 11th terrorist attacks in 2001 as a passenger on United Airline's flight 11 which was crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center. His mother's death coming a day before the ninth anniversary of his father's passing.