Anja Schneider, born in 1977 in Altenburg, Thuringia, studied at the Ernst Busch Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin from 1997 to 2001. She then spent five years at Schauspiel Leipzig, collaborating with renowned theater directors like Armin Petras, Wolfgang Engel, and Enrico Lübbe. Her talent was recognized in 2006 when she received the Otto Kasten Prize as Best Young Actress of the Year, followed by the Leipzig Theater Prize in 2007. That same year, Schneider joined the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, where she was honored with the Theater Prize of the Friends of the Maxim Gorki Theater in 2010. From 2013 to 2015, she performed at Schauspiel Stuttgart, and since 2016, she has been a member of the ensemble at the Deutsches Theater Berlin.

Schneider's screen career began in 1999/2000 with small roles in "Otto – Der Katastrofenfilm" and Vera Loebner's TV film "Preis der Schönheit." In 2007, she took on a central role in Thomas Arslan's ensemble drama "Ferien" ("Vacation"). She went on to make frequent appearances in popular TV crime series like "Soko Wismar," "Spreewaldkrimi," "Der Alte," and "Tatort." On the big screen, she portrayed the estranged daughter of Edgar Selge's character in Marco Mittelstädt's drama "Im nächsten Leben" (2008). She also had a small role in Andreas Dresen's "Als wir träumten" ("As We Were Dreaming", 2015) and appeared as a mother in Fatih Akin's acclaimed adaptation of Wolfgang Herrndorf's novel "Tschick" ("Goodbye Berlin", 2016).

In 2018, Schneider delivered a powerful performance in Constantin Hatz's award-winning drama "Brut" ("Brood"), portraying the controlling mother of a socially isolated medical student, played by Luise Aschenbrenner. Alongside her work in TV series, she starred in notable television films like Stephan Lacant's "Für meine Tochter," Thomas Stuber's "Kruso" (both 2018), and Florian Schwarz's "Für immer Eltern" (2021).

Her recent film roles include Leonie Krippendorff's celebrated lesbian coming-of-age story "Kokon" ("Cocoon," 2020) and Sabrina Sarabi's rural drama "Niemand ist bei den Kälbern" ("No One's with the Calves," 2021). In Andreas Kleinert's biopic "Lieber Thomas" ("Dear Thomas"), she portrayed Gerda Brasch, mother of the late writer and filmmaker Thomas Brasch, earning a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the 2022 German Film Awards.