Faris was born in Baltimore, Maryland, the daughter of Karen and Robert Faris. She has a brother, Jack, and grew up in Seattle, Washington. Her parents encouraged her to pursue acting when she was young and she gave her first professional acting performance at age nine at the Seattle Repertory Theater. After attending Edmonds Woodway High School, she studied English literature at the University Read more...

Her first significant film role was in the independent production Lovers Lane (1999). Her breakout role was the horror film parody Scary Movie (2000). The 5'5" Faris is a natural blonde, but dyed her hair black for the filming of Scary Movie and Scary Movie 2 so that her character more closely resembled Neve Campbell, who played the equivalent character in Scream, one of the films that Scary Movie Read more...

In 2004, Faris married actor Ben Indra, whom she met while working on Lovers Lane and whom she had dated since 1999. She filed for divorce on April 3, 2007, citing irreconcilable differences. Anna Faris won the "Stonette of the Year" award at High Times magazine's Stony Awards in Los Angeles on October 13, 2007.