A villain is an "evil" character in a story, whether a historical narrative or, especially, a work of fiction. In soap operas, the villain, sometimes called a "bad guy", is an antagonist, tending to have a negative effect on other characters. A female villain is sometimes called a villainess or "bad girl". Random House Unabridged Dictionary defines villain as "a cruelly malicious person who is involved in or devoted to wickedness or crime; scoundrel; or a character in a play, novel, or the like, who constitutes an important evil agency in the plot". [1] An early use of the term soap opera villain was in 1942. [2]
Tom Conroy from Media Life Magazine noted that "On soap operas, sometimes a perfectly nice regular character will suddenly turn into a villain. Viewers are rarely alerted to the change beforehand." [3] Shelley Fralic of the Winnipeg Free Press described the "first-class villain" of soap as: "Ruthless magnate. Serial groom. Charming rogue. Unrepentant schemer. Demanding paterfamilias. Defier of death. Tough, impatient, decisive, magnetic and infuriating. The blackest of blackguards." [4] A writer for Inside Soap magazine warned that "soap psychos" are often overly keen on their partners, keep them separated from their families, have strange things hidden in secret rooms, will attempt to kill their partner's ex-partner, and are fond of fire or high places and named a number of characters from EastEnders , Emmerdale and Coronation Street who have behaved in such ways. [5] Debra Hale, writing about the fate of villains for the Associated Press, said that "Sometimes, a villain becomes so evil he's beyond redemption and must be killed or imprisoned", but noted that "some villains are just too delectable to kill." [6] The following lists soap opera characters who have been described as villainous, evil, bad guys or baddies.
David Neilson is an English actor. He is best known for his role as cafe owner Roy Cropper in the long running ITV soap opera Coronation Street, which he has played since 1995.
Ben Price is an English actor, director and writer. He has played the role of Nick Tilsley in the ITV soap opera Coronation Street and has made four films as a writer/director, the first of which, I'm Sorry To Tell You, was BAFTA-shortlisted.
Diane Carol Richards, known professionally as Diane Parish, is an English actress, who has been portraying the character Denise Fox on the BBC One soap opera EastEnders since 2006.
Lucy-Jo Hudson is an English actress, known for her roles as Katy Harris in Coronation Street, Rosie Trevanion in Wild at Heart and Donna-Marie Quinn in Hollyoaks. Her role as Rhiannon Davis in Doctors earned her the British Soap Award for Villain of the Year in 2017.
Natalie Joy Robb is a Scottish actress and singer. She played the roles of Gemma Clewes in EastEnders, Trish McDonald in the Scottish Television soap opera Take the High Road (1990–1999) and Jude Carlyle in the BBC soap opera Doctors (2001–2004). Since 2009, she has portrayed the role of Moira Barton in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale. Her other television roles include Dream Team (2000–2001) and The Bill (2004–2005).
Jeff Hordley is an English actor, best known for portraying the role of Cain Dingle in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale. For his portrayal of Cain, he has been nominated for the British Soap Award for Best Actor at three ceremonies.
Jennifer Joanne Metcalfe is an English actress. She is known for her role as Mercedes McQueen in the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, which she has appeared in since 2006. Her portrayal of the character has led to her reprising the role in the programme's spin-off series Hollyoaks Later between 2008 and 2020. She appeared as a contestant in the sixth series of Dancing on Ice in 2011, where she finished in tenth place.
Natalie Jane Anderson is an English actress, singer and television presenter. She is known for her roles as Stella Davenport in the medical drama The Royal from 2005 to 2008 and Alicia Metcalfe in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale from 2010 to 2015. She also played the role of Nessarose in the London production Wicked from May 2009 to March 2010. In 2015, she began appearing on the ITV talk shows This Morning and Loose Women on a recurring basis; Anderson also portrayed the role of Lexi Calder in the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks from 2021 to 2022. In 2021 she played the role of Maryanne Borden in Liam Neeson action thriller Memory. In 2023 Anderson took guest roles in Happy Valley and Boiling Point and appeared on stage at Hull Truck Theatre as Kayla in Anna Jordan’s two hander play Pop Music. In 2024 Anderson played Claire Walker in the Netflix adaptation of Harlan Coben’s thriller “Fool Me Once”.
Matthew Wolfenden is an English actor best known for his role as David Metcalfe in the British soap opera Emmerdale.
Stephanie Louise Waring is an English actress, known for her roles in the Australian soap opera Crash Palace (2001–2002), the BBC1 drama series Nice Guy Eddie (2001–2002), and Channel 4's Hollyoaks (1996–2024), where she appeared for almost three decades as Cindy Cunningham. Her other television work includes guest appearances on Merseybeat, Holby City, Doctors, and Coronation Street, as well as competing in the tenth series of Dancing on Ice in 2018.
Catherine Mary Ann Tyldesley is an English actress, known for her roles as Iris Moss in the BBC drama Lilies (2007), Eva Price on the ITV soap opera Coronation Street from (2011–2018) and Karen Norris in the BBC sitcom Scarborough (2019). She also appeared as a contestant on the seventeenth series of Strictly Come Dancing in 2019.
Dominic Power is an English actor. Power has portrayed Leon Taylor in the ITV police drama The Bill (2008–2010), Cameron Murray in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale (2011–2013), and Dave Chen-Williams in the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks (2021–2024).
Paula Lane is an English actress. She is best known for portraying the roles of Kylie Platt in ITV soap opera Coronation Street (2010–2016), and Ella Forster in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale (2024–2025).
Nadine Rose Mulkerrin is an English actress, known for portraying the role of Cleo McQueen in the Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks from 2015 until 2022 and since 2024. For her portrayal of Cleo, she has been nominated for Best Female Dramatic Performance at the British Soap Awards three times.
Kate Oates is a British television producer, who was born in Nottingham and graduated from Warwick University. She began her career working as a researcher and editorial assistant for Germaine Greer, before becoming a script editor for the soap opera Crossroads. In 2003, she joined the radio soap The Archers as a producer, a position which Oates credits as the majority of her training. After resigning from this job, Oates began working on the ITV soap opera Emmerdale as a script editor, during which time she assisted with the soap's fortieth anniversary celebrations and worked on British Soap Award-winning storylines. She remained in the position until 2012 when she joined Coronation Street as the assistant producer.
Grace Roscoe is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Tamara Wall. The character made her first on-screen appearance on 8 November 2013. Wall had three auditions for the role on the show's set in Liverpool. The character is introduced as the sister of Clare Devine, who had been killed off in earlier episodes. Grace arrives to investigate her death and get reacquainted with her estranged father Fraser Black.
The villain on the program is now Susan Stewart [...]
Les Dennis is revealed as Brookside's new villain, Jeff Evans.
There hasn't been a villain on the show since Tina Mollet's abuse storyline with Jacob Masters came to an end last year
As the villain spins around, innocent Chesney walks through the door, and is slashed with the lethal weapon...
Fred was a bit of a villain to start with, he said
The evil con woman seems to be unravelling, while her partner-in-crime Jim secretly meets with Liz, telling her that he's never stopped loving her
This is our first proper look at Callum, who promises to be one of Corrie's most intriguing villains for years
Donna Parker may be one of the Street's lesser known villains-but Alf Roberts will never forget her
Evil Grace convinces Faye to run wild in Tracy's flat and bully poor Simon.
We know she's an acquired taste but we're already very keen on Corrie's Evil Evelyn
As Lillian, Lipman was an archetypal Corrie comedic villain.
Emma was held hostage, and that was like a little two-hander for me with Matthew Dunster who played her evil captor, Ryan Sykes
With the family now sitting targets for Ronan, Ryan makes the bold decision to get out of the car and face the villain alone, in a misguided attempt to save his mum and Ali from any further harm
will Adam get to his evil twin before the police?
Adam was the jealous soap villain who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted
Villainous Derek will join his family to start a new life.
The more evil Joey Branning gets, the more we swoon
Meanwhile, the raison d'etre of the show's current villain, Fi Browning, has been to restock the Queen Vic with craft beer
She's a very evil lady-if she was one of my relatives, I think I might do her in!
A new villain arrives on Albert Square.
The lovable rogue, who is quickly becoming Albert Square's resident villain, gave them a video call to confirm that baby Cherry was safe.
The villain sets out to wreck Ronnie's life...
However, it could be villainous Mel (Tamzin Outhwaite) who gets rid of the youngster once and for all...
Yep, Joseph was a soap villain only last year, as his vicious alter ego made Mick's prison life hell.
Even worse, evil Willy Roper-who had stolen the money-was making moves on Pauline
As if having bad boy Carl on the Square wasn't enough, now his brother Adam has popped up as well. And he's even more of a villain than Carl.
...pure, unbridled evil
'Liv is the thorn in Paul's side-he says it's only ever gone wrong since she came along!' says Reece Dinsdale who plays the Dales villain.
As the villain brazenly denies all, Cain issues him with a chilling promise: Cross me again, and you'll end up just like Joe!
Baddie Dennis Rigg came to a nasty end when he was crushed by the Sugdens' prize bull in 1989.
Or maybe it's smart thinking that brings this villainous vixen back to Emmerdale
With his confession to the murder of Harry Mowlem, Derek Warner proved to be one of the most evil characters to appear in Emmerdale Farm.
Next week's episodes see Ray's evil character Jonny Baxter come clean to Ste Hay (Kieron Richardson) about his involvement in a far-right extremist group.
Hollyoaks' Wendy Blissett is proving to be quite the villain
Evil Macki continues his reign of terror over Ali Taylor and Justin Burton this week
Evil Stuart will be leaving the cast of Hollyoaks at the end of Ste Hay's far-right extremism storyline.
Realising that he and Joel have a common enemy, Darren offers to take down the villain in tandem-but after sneaky Shane works out what they're up to, he abducts Cleo and uses her as a pawn in his plan for revenge...
Or might evil Mick-who attacked Billie in the gym several months ago and is the father of her baby-make a shock return and bump off his victim?
Ash may live to regret threatening evil Simmo!
Evil Zannis the drug dealer poisons the Morgans' water
While in Neighbours, doctor Karl Kennedy (Alan Fletcher) faces a fight for the affections of Izzy Hoyland (Natalie Bassingthwaite) from Ramsay Street villain Gus Cleary (Ben Barrack).
Last time Paul and Terese tried marriage counselling it ended in recriminations and accusations, and drove her into the arms of his evil brother
ends up with bad guy Mannix as her housemate.
Will brave Imogen be able to escape evil Forrest's clutches?
Michael sets out to warn Helen that Len is nothing but an evil conman who is simply after her money.
Neighbours' David Tanaka, Aaron Brennan and Nicolette Stone all receive a worrying threat next week as new villain Veronica McLain turns even nastier.
Villainous Montague breaks into Brennan's place
But the big moment is when one of the suburbs' more interesting villains – Steph Scully – rides back into town.(subscription required)
Evil Annie's got her eye on Ben...