Velma Dinkley | |
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Scooby-Doo character | |
First appearance | "What a Night for a Knight" (Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! episode) |
Portrayed by |
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Voiced by |
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Information | |
Species | Human |
Gender | Female |
Velma Dinkley is a fictional character in the Scooby-Doo franchise. She is prone to losing her glasses. She is usually seen wearing a baggy orange turtleneck, short pleated skirt (or in later episodes an A-line skirt, or sometimes shorts), knee socks, and Mary Janes. She is seen as the brains of the group.
Throughout her various incarnations, Velma is usually portrayed as a highly intelligent young woman with highly specific interests in science (which in the Scooby and Scrappy Doo series leads her to pursue a career as a NASA research scientist) or merely being very well read on obscure fields, such as Viking writing (as in the third Scooby-Doo series The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries). In Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo, Velma is described by her younger sister Madelyn as being "born with a mystery book in her hand". Consequently, Velma is usually the one to figure out the mystery, sometimes with the help of Fred and Daphne. Velma Dinkley was inspired by the brainy tomboy Zelda Gilroy, as played by Sheila James, from the late 1950s/early 1960s American sitcom The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.
A running gag in Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and The New Scooby-Doo Movies is Velma's severe nearsightedness and her trouble with keeping her glasses on her face (often resulting in them falling off while she is being chased by the villain). Another running gag is that despite the fact that she is the smallest of the Scooby-Doo gang she can actually carry away the whole gang in her arms from a villain.