Anjali Patil was born on 26 September 1987. She was born to  Shubha Shinde, Sanjay Shinde into a Marathi family and raised in Nashik, Maharashtra, India. She attended RJCB girls high school (Purushottam), Nasik and by age 14, she had decided to pursue acting as her career. She persuaded her parents to send her to Center for Performing Arts at the University of Pune. In June 2007, she earned bachelor's degree in Arts with a gold medal for her excellence. Later that year, Patil was chosen to pursue Masters in Theater Design at National School of Drama in New Delhi. It presented her with many opportunities to work extensively with Indian and International film and theater actors and directors.

Her first feature film opportunity came with Prashant Nair's Hindi-English international independent film Delhi in a Day. She was critically acclaimed for her portrayal of Rohini. It was premiered in Asia at the Mumbai film festival on 13 October 2011 and released theatrically in India in August 2012. In 2010-11, Patil worked as the lead actress and a producer on an international short film Green Bangles. It was selected as India’s official entry to WIFTI (Women In Film and Television International, Los Angeles) and was eventually selected and screened at the WIFTI International Showcase 2012 in 44 cities in 15 countries. Her big Bollywood break came with Prakash Jha's film on issues related to Naxalwad: Chakravyuh in 2012.  Oba Nathuwa Oba Ekka (With You, Without You) (2012) was another international collaboration with acclaimed Sri Lankan writer-director Prasanna Vithanage. Patil did the dubbing herself and that makes her the first Indian actress to dub in the Sinhala language. Her stellar performance won her Silver Peacock award for Best Actor Female at International Film Festival of India in Goa in November 2012. She is one of the youngest actors to receive this award. In 2016 Patil finished two Marathi films: Bardo with Makarand Deshpande and The Silence with Nagraj Manjule as a co-actor.