Anne Kanis (nee Richter) was born in 1979 in East Berlin as the daughter of the stage actress Elisabeth Richter-Kubbutat and the pantomime Günter Richter.  In 1992, she made her debut as voice actor speaking the title character in the radio play "Emma", based on the eponymous German children's book by Ursula Fuchs. She debuted on the TV screen at the age of 16, in an episode of the crime series "Wolkenstein" (1996), a performance that marked the beginning of her television career. After guest appearances in various other TV series, Kanis had a recurring role in "Unser Charly" from 2000 to 2001, starring as a friend of the main character. She received much critical acclaim for her starring role in the TV drama "Zerbrechliche Zeugin" (2000, directed by Ben Verbong), as a slightly disabled girl who is witnessing a murder. Other roles in television included Rainer Kaufmann's slapstick romantic comedy "...und die Braut wusste von nichts" (2002), Christian Görlitz's terrorism drama "Die Verlorenen" (2009), and Thomas Berger's female friendship story "Hand in Hand "(2009). Mostly however, Kanis could be seen in guest roles in numerous TV (crime) series, such as "Bella Block", "Großstadtrevier", "Pfarrer Braun", "Ein starkes Team", SOKO Köln" and "Familie Dr. Kleist", to name but a few. She also played a leading role as a blind patient of a corrupt doctor in the "Tatort" entry "Blinder Glaube (2008).

On the big screen, Anne Kanis only starred rarely over the years. She played a small role as the "Chief's" wife in Léos Carax's "Pola X" (FR/DE/CH/JP 1999), and was a young refugee girl in Max Färberböck's "Anonyma – Eine Frau in Berlin" ("A Woman in Berlin", 2008). She had a bigger role in the feature film "Die Unbedingten" (2009), as a young woman who out of love defies the orders of her conservative father. In 2011, Kanis was part of the main cast of Elke Hauck's friendship drama "Der Preis" ("The Prize"), which premiered at the Berlinale IFF 2011 in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section. After that Anne Kanis focused again on her TV work. She had recurring roles as a paraplegic in the hospital series "In aller Freundschaft" (2012-2013) and as the birth mother of the foster child of "Tierärztin Dr. Mertens" (2016). In "In aller Freundschaft," she was seen again in a leading guest role in late 2016, as a shocked woman who claims to have seen a vampire. Kanis also had an important TV role as a sister of a prospective criminal police officer in Franziska Buch's much-lauded emancipation story "Eine wie diese" (2014). In 2015, her first novel "Nichts als ein Garten" was published. In addition, she has taken over guest roles in various TV series.

It was not until 2018 that Anne Kanis appeared again in a feature film: Alongside Florian Teichtmeister, she starred in "Adam and Evelyn" as a GDR citizen, who in the summer of 1989, wants to use the opportunity to escape the GDR via Hungary to Austria. The film premiered at the International Film Festival in Venice in 2018 in the section "Settimana della Critica" (Week of Criticism) and was released in German cinemas in January 2019.