My first run through was with a Nord warrior type. Pretty straight forward heavy armor and single handed weapons with light magic.

I want more of a stealth character. Bow, dual wielding daggers, light armor, sneaking, lock picking, pick pocketing and just all around evil to the core!

So what races would be ideal for that sort of character?

Argonian or wood elf would be cool. If you go with the Argonian its easy to feel evil, and if you go with the elf then you are already hated by the people in skyrim, so you could RP that alot

Wood elf or a khajiit.

Bosmer, Khajit - similar stats, Bosmer has slightly better archery, Khajiit has better one-handed and Night Eye as a racial ability.
Argonian would be quite good as well.

Wood Elf Has nice bonus' when it comes to being a sneaky thief, There racial Command animal could come in handy for those nasty trolls/ cave bears early on, or to simply just out number your opponent. I'd Say Bosmer. The Wood Elf

Argonians are great stealth people.

Actually, Argonians are just great.

Khajiit; +10 Sneak, +5 Alchemy ,+5 Archery, +5 Lockpicking, +5 One-Handed, +5 Pickpocket.
Argonian; Lockpicking +10, Alteration +5, Light Armor +5, , Pickpocket +5, Restoration +5, Sneak +5.
Wood Elf; Archery +10, Alchemy +5, Light Armor +5, Lockpicking +5, Pickpocket +5, Sneak +5.

Whatever suits you best.

While each race has racial bonuses, with Khajit, Argonian and Wood Elves all being naturally pre-disposed to being stealth type characters...

Any race will do.

Why not pick one you're interested in?

Azrael
The Nord with the Sword

I just made one myself and I went with Breton for the 50% magic resist and magic absorb racial power. I know it's not a "typical" thief race but the +bonuses you start off with don't matter much but the racial differences do. I'd rather have the anti magic protection vs the other stuff. If I had to pick a different race though I'd go with Khajit (sp). The night vision would come in handy.

Thank you all for the help! One last question.

Would dual wielding daggers be pointless? I am wondering if daggers have any sort of advantage over swords...

Redguard female

they are definitely better for sneak attacks. with perks and some special gear you can get 30x damage bonus on sneak attacks (possibly more, thats just what i have) but for fighting against someone who has seen me, i prefer to dual wield swords. they are slightly slower, but they hit harder to make up for it, and i like the added range vs a dagger.
Note: i havent tried a sneak attack with 2 daggers, i always do a single. just fyi

Sneak perk = 15x dagger sneak damage.
Dark Brotherhood gauntlets = double backstab damage, so x30.
Dual wield = 2 attacks, x30 each.

So say you had a dagger that did 10 damage, a dual wield power attack would hit for... 600 damage, if I'm not mistaken.

I went Altmer, just because with black hair, and evil goatee, and that yellow skin, I look like an evil version of Data (Star Trek). Its cool. I also got the perk in illusion that lets my spells be cast silently, because then I have the soul trap spell in my left hand and dagger in the right. So when you get the throat-slit animation, your hand with the purple oblivion portal in it goes over their mouth as your dagger hand slits them. It makes it look like the soul goes straight into the void in your hand. "Expel into this, dreamer."

Ok, thats a bit messed up, but if you plan to actually be evil ... Nothing like Evil Data giving you the soul chloroform while carving you ou a brand new set of gills.