Anke Retzlaff was born in Hannover on March 25, 1989. In 2007, she made her acting debut in the multi-award winning short "Zwischenraum" (Director: Corinna Funke). From 2008 until 2010, she studied music at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover. She subsequently enrolled in the school's acting programme and is to complete her studies in 2014.

Retzlaff had her first feature film role in Dirk Lütter's coming of age drama "Die Ausbildung" (2011), playing a temporary worker who falls in love with an exploited apprentice. Two years later she starred in the drama "Puppe" (2012), directed by Sebastian Kutzli. In the film, Anke Retzlaff plays a street kid who unknowingly befriends the murderer of her best friend in a correctional camp for minors.