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Rhoda Penmark is a fictional character in William March's 1954 novel The Bad Seed and the stage play of the same name adapted from it by Maxwell Anderson. She is both the protagonist and antagonist of the story. Penmark is a child serial killer and psychopath who manipulates those around her. She was portrayed by Patty McCormack in the original rendition of the play and later in the 1956 film adaptation. She was also portrayed by Carrie Wells in the 1985 made-for-television adaptation and by Mckenna Grace in the 2018 adaptation.

Rhoda Penmark is an eight-year-old girl who is charming, polite, and intelligent beyond her years. Beneath her lovable facade, however, she is a sociopath who is willing to harm and even kill anyone to get whatever she wants, whenever she wants it. She is also a precociously talented con artist, adept at manipulating adults. Other children, who can sense her true nature, avoid her. In the beginning of the novel, she brutally murders a classmate and a groundskeeper who suspects her. It is also revealed that she murdered an elderly neighbor and her pet dog a few years before.

March writes that Rhoda's evil is gene: her maternal grandmother, "the incomparable Bessie Denker," was an infamous serial killer who also began killing at Rhoda's age. Rhoda's mother, Christine, was adopt at a very young age and does not remember her biological parents.

While at a school picnic, Rhoda murders her classmate, Claude Daigle, who won a special penmanship award that she feels she deserved. After killing Claude, she retrieves the medal and leaves the dead boy's body in a local lake. While no one suspects Rhoda at first, Christine notices that her daughter seems startlingly indifferent to the other child's tragic death. Christine, who has always vaguely sensed something wrong with her daughter, is troubled, but dismisses any possibility that Rhoda was actually involved in the boy's death.

Rhoda Penmark has not been a contender in any CBUB matches.