Anne Schäfer was born in Munich in 1979. She studied acting at the "Hochschule für Musik und Theater" in Zurich. After starting at the Schauspielhaus Zurich, she joined the Landestheater Tübingen. Among her roles was the Iphigenie in Goethe's "Iphigenie auf Tauris". 2006/2007, Schäfer was a guest player at the theatre in Basel, and since 2008, she is an ensemble member at the Bayerische Staatsschauspiel in Munich. In 2009, she was awarded the Kurt-Meisel-Preis, which is dedicated to young talents, for her work at the theatre. The following year, she made her screen debut in "Cindy liebt mich nicht", a melancholic comedy about a young woman who is having two romantic relationships at the same time.

In addition to her stage roles, she guest-starred on TV shows like "Der Bergdoktor" and "SOKO 5113". Schäfer next was the lead in Jan Fehse's "Jasmin", and her performance as a young woman who has killed her own child garnered her a nomination for the newcomer award at the 2011 Munich Film Festival.

Apart from a lead role in Dominik Graf's period drama "Die geliebten Schwestern" ("Beloved Sisters", DE/AT 2012-2014), she predominately worked on television, where she was a regular cast member on the shows "Add a Friend" and "SOKO Köln".

After leaving "SOKO Köln," Schäfer took on a regular role as a Spanish detective in the crime series "Der Barcelona-Krimi" in 2017. She also appeared in several TV dramas, including the romantic comedies "Arzt mit Nebenwirkung" (2017) and (in a supporting role) "Wenn Frauen ausziehen" (2017). On the big screen, she was seen in a central role as a crafty hacker in the action comedy "Hot Dog" in early 2018. She had supporting roles in feature films as a nurse in the youth film "Club der roten Bänder - Wie alles begann" ("Red Bracelets: The Beginning", 2019) and as a Jew during the Nazi era in "Als Hitler das rosa Kaninchen stahl" ("When hitler Stole Pink Rabbit", DE/CH 2019).  

Mainly, Schäfer continued to appear on television, with leading roles in the Christmas tragicomedy "Der Wunschzettel" (2018), the highly acclaimed social drama "Geliefert" ("Delivered", 2021) and the award-winning crime four-parter "Die Toten von Marnow" ("Marnow Murders", 2021). She played numerous series guest roles, among them in "Hindafing" (2019), "Bad Banks" (2020) and "Ein Fall für zwei" (2021). She also continued to play a leading role in "Der Barcelona-Krimi."  

In 2022, Schäfer appeared in no less than two feature films: she played the lead role in the character and family study "Alle reden übers Wetter" ("Talking About the Weather") and a smaller supporting role in the youth film "Alle für Ella".