Carmen as born in a small Brazilian village along the Amazon River. Her father was black and her mother was a Tinglat Indian. She adored her mother but had problems with her alcoholic and abusive father. When she was 12, her mother died and her father moved to Rio de Janeiro. There they ended up living in the Favellas (slums).

Life was hard for Carmen without her mother. She started running the streets, and the gangs in Rio are vicious. She was a very young street fighter when a priest by the name of Manuel Ramos found her. He got her involved in his youth program that taught capoeira. Displaying a gift for dancing very early, Father Manuel got the child into one of Rio’s better dance schools. She took “Dancer” as her Capoeira name.

Carmen grew into an exotically beautiful young woman. As happens in some mulattos, she combined the best features of both races in her appearance. She also became quite an athlete and joined Brazil’s capoeira youth demonstration team that went on tour. She drew attention during their tour of the United States that earned her a place in New York’s prestigious School for the Performing Arts, the Juliard. There, she also discovered that she had the voice of an angel.

After graduating, she worked as a professional dancer working as an extra in many Broadway productions. She earned enough to get by and was the first Capoeira Mestre in New York City. Carmen did volunteer work with St. Dunstan’s Cathedral teaching Capoeira to street kids. This was her way of paying back Father Manuel for saving her from a life of disaster.

She attended night school and earned a degree in psychology. Taking a paid position with the Catholic Church as a child counselor, she still danced professionally on the side. One of her previous teachers from the Juliard was directing a major Broadway production and placed Carmen in the starring role of that dancing musical. The soundtrack of the musical sold quite well. Shortly thereafter, she was noticed by a Hollywood producer that offered the exotic beauty an acting contract. In the end, Carmen decided that she couldn’t abandon her kids and stayed in the Bronx as a counselor for troubled kids.

One of her kids was desperately trying to leave his drug gang past behind. Carmen did what she could to help him, even going as far as talking to the gang. In the end, the kid was murdered. As fate would have it, Carmen witnessed the crime. Against the advice of friends, she decided to testify against the Rastafarian drug dealers.

Despite two attempts on her life, she managed to make it through the court case and see the murderers behind bars. After which, she attempted to return to her old life. The drug dealers had other plans. Vengeful and wanting to make a statement, the gangs went after Carmen. After a fire bombing of the youth center where she worked, she realized that she was doing more harm than good. Somewhere during this point in time she became disillusioned with the church and stopped being active in it’s activities.

Carmen contacted the Hollywood producer who was interested in her, and he moved her to Los Angeles. She had bit parts in two major movies and starred in a B-Grade martial arts movie, “The Dancer”, that performed beyond all expectations. There was talk of “The Return of the Dancer” and “The Dancer’s Revenge” but Carmen decided that she her fill of that sort of filmmaking.

She was offered a co-starring role in a Universal Studios romantic-comedy production opposite a current superstar, but despite the huge potential of the film, she turned it down. Instead, she wanted to return to working with street kids. Before long she was a Los Angeles juvenile probation officer with the California Department of Corrections and she helped run a youth program in her spare time.

During an attempt to clean up some inner city schools, there was a need for someone to go undercover as a teacher. Carmen was an obvious choice. Her acting career solidified her cover even more. Who would expect an actress-turned-teacher to be a cop? Narcotics borrowed her and she spent nearly two years working as a teacher in one of Los Angeles worst schools. Her assistance proved invaluable in bringing down three major drug rings.

Her active and changing professions didn't leave her with a lot of time for herself. What time she did have for hobbies, she mostly spent on the computer. Gaming, fiddling with computer art, or talking with people who lived far away and didn't know her.

She taught capoeira and worked with troubled kids for two years until her past caught up with her. One of her kids died in a drive-by shooting intended for her. It was discovered that there was a major underworld contract on her life. She was then contacted by someone offering her another opportunity to help people. Since she had come to the conclusion that she couldn’t help her kids anymore, she joined the Morrow Project.

During her Project training she proved to be popular with the other trainees and had no sense of superiority from her brush with fame. Actually, she was a down-to-earth type that proved to be more concerned with other people than herself. In hand-to-hand training there was only one instructor in the entire program that could touch her. She disliked guns but acknowledged the necessity, proving to be a fair shot.

Oddly, during her MARS team training, the other personnel who had much more military experience kept turning to Carmen for leadership. Due to her natural charisma and common sense she found herself in the forefront much more often than expected. When team positions were brought up, her teammates wanted her as Team Leader. Carmen agreed with the understanding that she would rely on her more experienced teammates in technical matters.