Carmen Sandiego (character)

Carmen Isabella Sandiego is a fictional character featured in a long-running edutainment video games series of the same name created by the American software company Broderbund. As an international lady thief, a criminal mastermind, and the elusive nemesis of the ACME Detective Agency, Carmen Sandiego is the principal character of the video game series and the head of ACME's rival organization, V.I.L.E. She is depicted as an extremely intelligent, stylish, fashionable woman whose signature look features a red, matching fedora and trenchcoat. Many of her crimes depicted in the games involve spectacular and often impossible cases of monument theft, which are used as a pretext to teach children geography via the simulated process of tracking down the character, the stolen monuments, and her accomplices all over the world with her sidekicks Zack and Ivy.

Carmen Sandiego's authors were Gene Portwood, Lauren Elliott, and Dane Bigham. Writer David Siefkin, who wrote the first script of the project and invented the character's name, left before the first game was released in 1985. The character's identity as a Hispanic woman has remained a consistent and integral part of her character, and visually, she was partly influenced by the Brazilian singer and actress Carmen Miranda. Her last name alludes to the city of San Diego, California. 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.