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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". An early use of the term soap opera villain was in 1942.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." 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." 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. 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." The following lists soap opera characters who have been described as villainous, evil, bad guys or baddies.

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