Anu grew up in the Malleswaram suburb of Bangalore, and studied in the Nirmala Rani High School.

While she dropped out of college when her career as a heroine took off[1] she later went on to pursue a master's degree in sociology from Karnataka University through correspondence.

In 2009, she gave her voice to an HIV/AIDS education animated software tutorial created by nonprofit organisation TeachAids.

[4] Anu Prabhakar was honoured by Bangalore's Kolada Math, with the title 'Abhinaya Saraswathi' for her performance in various films.

[6] Earlier she was married to Krishna Kumar, son of actress Jayanthi and they had divorced in January 2014 citing differences.