Key Takeaways
- Meghan Markle and Prince Harry executive-produced Cookie Queens, a documentary following four Girl Scouts as they chase ambitious sales goals during the six-week 2024 cookie season.
- Director Alysa Nahmias uses the $800 million cookie business to explore girlhood, competition, and resilience, from 5-year-old Ara’s 55-box target to former national top seller Olive’s comeback bid.
- After winning the 2026 SXSW Festival Audience Award, Cookie Queens will premiere on Paramount+ on January 6, 2027, as part of the streamer’s new licensed-documentary slate.
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry’s Cookie Queens is taking its Girl Scout hustle to Paramount+.
The streamer announced on Wednesday, September 2, that the SXSW Audience Award-winning documentary will premiere January 6, 2027, as part of a new slate of licensed nonfiction films. Directed by Alysa Nahmias and made in association with Meghan and Harry’s Archewell Productions, Cookie Queens turns the annual Girl Scout Cookie season into a surprisingly high-stakes look at ambition, competition, and growing up inside an $800 million business.
And these girls came to sell.
Filmed during the six-week 2024 cookie season, Cookie Queens follows four Girl Scouts with wildly different goals. Twelve-year-old Olive, a previous nationwide top seller from Charlotte, wants to reclaim her place among the country’s “Cookie Queens.”
Eight-year-old Shannon Elizabeth in El Paso is chasing 2,750 boxes to help pay for Girl Scout camp, while 9-year-old Nikki in California hopes to earn enough toward her troop’s European trip.
Then there’s 5-year-old Ara in San Diego, who does Pilates to build the strength needed to haul her cookie cart while pursuing a comparatively modest 55-box goal.
Meghan has said that combination of childhood, competition and serious business is precisely what attracted her to the project. The Duchess of Sussex, a former Girl Scout whose mother was her troop leader, joined Prince Harry as an executive producer after the film’s festival breakout.
“It’s such a brilliant portrayal of Americana and the global tradition of the Girl Scouts,” Meghan said at a July screening.
She also warned audiences not to underestimate the premise. “I know you think it’s just going to be a cute film about cookies,” she said, before adding that its more emotional moments make it “much more resonant.”
That resonance goes beyond the competition for bragging rights. Girl Scout cookie sales help troops finance everything from camps and field trips to community projects, while putting skills like goal setting, money management, and decision-making into practice.
Nahmias has been equally clear that the multimillion-dollar business behind those brightly colored boxes was central to her story. “Girl Scout Cookies are more than a beloved tradition,” she previously said, describing the program as a lens through which she could examine “girlhood — the ambition, resilience, humor, and vulnerability” of its young participants.
Cookie Queens has already traveled considerably before its Paramount+ deal. The documentary premiered at Sundance, went on to win the 2026 SXSW Festival Audience Award, and was picked up for U.S. distribution by Roadside Attractions.
Roadside co-presidents Eric d’Arbeloff and Howard Cohen previously called cookie season an American tradition “that millions of people recognize but rarely stop to consider.”
Now millions more will get the chance.
Cookie Queens joins The Road Between Us: The Ultimate Rescue and Hanging By a Wire on Paramount+’s newly announced documentary slate.
