[7][3] Torv's paternal aunt, journalist Anna dePeyster, was married to media mogul Rupert Murdoch for 31 years.

[7] Following her high school graduation, she relocated to Sydney, New South Wales, where she had been accepted into the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA) at the age of 17.

As she was too young to get an electricity account on her own, and to go to pubs, she decided to take a "gap year", during which she worked as cafe and bar staff.

[9] In 2005, Torv recorded a series of audio books for Scholastic Australia's Solo Collection, including the titles Little Fingers, Jack's Owl, Spike, and Maddy in the Middle,[10] and later did voice work and performance capture for the role of Nariko in the 2007 video game Heavenly Sword.

[12] Torv appeared as Virginia Grey on HBO's mini-series The Pacific and later starred in a CollegeHumor Original video as a tyrannical traffic cop.

[14] In March 2016, Torv was cast in the role of Dr. Wendy Carr, an FBI consultant, in the Netflix drama Mindhunter.

[18][19] The show premiered in January 2023; despite being a guest role, Torv's performance was seen as an early highlight, with Bernard Boo of Den of Geek writing: "With just about an episode and a half, the terrific Anna Torv leaves an indelible impression as Joel's no-nonsense ride-or-die Tess before literally exiting the series with a bang [...]".

[34] She then sold her home and returned to Australia's Gold Coast in early 2020,[33] where she stayed with her mother before moving to Melbourne to film The Newsreader.