Carmen Isabella Sandiego[5] is a fictional character featured in a long-running edutainment video games series of the same name created by the American software company Broderbund.

Writer David Siefkin, who wrote the first script of the project and invented the character's name, left to become a diplomat for the U.S. State Department before the first game was released in 1985.

Carmen Sandiego is referred to by such epithets as The Miss of Misdemeanor, Vicious & Cruel, The Queen of Crime, and The World's Greatest Thief.

Carmen Sandiego was a brilliant agent for the ACME Detective Agency until she left and formed the Villains' International League of Evil (V.I.L.E.).

Unlike in most of the rest of the series, the reason for Carmen leaving ACME is not specifically stated, although it is speculated on by Suhara ("Déjà Vu").

Before finding out the ultimate truth, Avalon falls from a roof during a battle with former ACME agent Lee Jordan and has selective amnesia of the events that have transpired.

CommonSenseMedia explains: why Carmen breaks the law at every turn, but her thefts are somehow forgivable because she does it more for the challenge and the thrill of it than for any personal gain, and her main concern is always the preservation of the artifacts.

[7]DVDTalk determines: Carmen, bless her heart, is a thief only in the sense of her love of a mental contest; she's not out to hurt anybody, often leaving valuables behind, and, in one episode, attempting to save Ivy from harm.

The teens, then, give their brains a workout with every adventure, obviously taking great delight in solving Carmen's geography riddles.

Unlike in most of the rest of the franchise, the reason for Carmen leaving ACME is not specifically stated in the Earth series, although it was speculated by Suhara ("Déjà Vu").

In the episode "Hot Ice", Carmen points out she didn't have all the high-tech hardware Zack and Ivy have back when she was an ACME detective.

Carmen is sometimes depicted as genuinely liking Zack and Ivy, and enjoying the ongoing battle of wits she has with them to the point where she will often congratulate the two for their successes regarding them as worthy opponents.

They see Sara Bellum handing out candy to trick-or-treaters, on Carmen's orders so her theft wasn't going to wreck the holiday for children.

Although a villainess Carmen operates on her own brand of morals, such as being a thief in the strictest sense of the word and not killing Zack and Ivy despite gaining many opportunities to do so.

She has even saved the Chief's life when he was suffering a viral malfunction and did not want to lose him and only had Manny "kidnap" him so she could get to play chess with him like they did every Christmas when she was an ACME agent.

In this universe, Carmen's partner when she was at ACME was Chase Devineaux and one of the last cases they worked on together involved the mythical "Prometheus Rock."

Jules specifically notes that Carmen never talked about her childhood, and aside from the mention of her winning the aforementioned game show, no details of it are given.

In the 2019 Netflix animated series, which portrays Carmen as the hero instead of a villain, she is an orphan Argentine girl code-named "Black Sheep" who is rescued by V.I.L.E.

In the original Broderbund games, Carmen Sandiego wore a yellow or orange dress under her trench coat, with a matching stripe on her fedora, and red high-heeled shoes (best recognized in this outfit).

She also seemed to have a flair for elegance, being described in the classic 1985 video game as having "jewelry" as a feature and in its accompanying manual as wearing a famous necklace known as the "Moon of Moldavia".

In the later games developed under The Learning Company and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, the character's appearance was rebooted so that she wore a grayish black catsuit under her trench coat, with the stripe on her fedora changed to match, and more practical footwear.

In the canon depicted in the Earth animated television series, her hair is black, rather than the usual brown, as are her normally gray gloves.

Her hat band on Earth is orange, matching a turtle neck and skirt she wears under her trench coat in this series.

[16] The 2019 Netflix animated series presents an intimate look into Carmen Sandiego's past where viewers not only follow her escapades but also learn her origins.

[19] Heather Alexandra of Kotaku described her as "mysterious", "clever", "dashing", a "mastermind", "cunning", "sly", "sneaky", "smart", and fashionable, summing her up as the "perfect childhood villain".

[28] She was included in GameSpot's 2010 "All Time Greatest Video Game Villain" contest and lost to Sweet Tooth in "Round 1b".