Anne Jacqueline Hathaway was born in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on November 12, 1982. Her father, Gerald, is a labor attorney, and her mother, Kate (née McCauley), is a former Actress. Hathaway's maternal grandfather was WIP-AM Philadelphia radio personality Joe McCauley. Kate is of Irish descent, and Gerald is of Irish, French, English and German ancestry. Hathaway's surname originates in England. Hathaway, named after Shakespeare's wife, was six years old when her family moved to Millburn, New Jersey, where she grew up. She is the second of three children, with two brothers, one older, Michael, and one younger, Thomas.

Hathaway attended Brooklyn Heights Montessori School and Wyoming Elementary School in Millburn. She graduated from Millburn High School, where she played soccer and participated in many plays, including Once Upon a Mattress, in which she portrayed Winnifred. Later, she appeared in plays, including Jane Eyre and Gigi, at New Jersey's Paper Mill Playhouse. She studied at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in 1993, and was the first teenager admitted into the Barrow Group Theater Company's acting program. She spent several semesters studying as an English major and political science minor at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York, before transferring to New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. She has stated that she would have either become an English Teacher or Psychologist if she were not acting.

Between 1998 and 1999, Hathaway sang Soprano with the All-Eastern U.S. High School Honors Chorus at Carnegie Hall and in plays at Seton Hall Preparatory School in West Orange, New Jersey. At the start of her film career, her acting style and beauty were compared to the likes of Judy Garland—whom she cites as one of her favorite actresses—and Audrey Hepburn. Three days after her performance at Carnegie Hall, Hathaway was cast in the short-lived Fox television series Get Real. The series follows the dysfunctional Green family; Hathaway played the teenager Meghan Green alongside Jon Tenney, Debrah Farentino and Jesse Eisenberg. Despite her early success, Hathaway suffered from depression and anxiety as a teenager; she says she has since grown from it. She missed her first college semester for the filming of her cinematic debut The Princess Diaries (2001). She says she never regretted not finishing her degree, as she enjoyed being with others who "were trying to grow up".

Hathaway graduated from Millburn High School in New Jersey, where she acted in several plays. As a teenager, she was cast in the television series Get Real (1999–2000), and made her breakthrough as the protagonist in her debut film, the Disney comedy The Princess Diaries (2001). Hathaway made a transition to adult roles with the 2005 dramas Havoc and Brokeback Mountain. The comedy film The Devil Wears Prada (2006), in which she played an assistant to a fashion magazine Editor, was her biggest commercial success to that point. She played a recovering alcoholic in the drama Rachel Getting Married (2008), which garnered her a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actress. She followed this with roles in the commercially successful romantic films Bride Wars (2009), Valentine's Day (2010) and Love & Other Drugs (2010).

Hathaway's most acclaimed and highest-grossing films, according to the online portal Box Office Mojo and the review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, include The Princess Diaries (2001), Brokeback Mountain (2005), The Devil Wears Prada (2006), Get Smart (2008), Rachel Getting Married (2008), Valentine's Day (2010), Alice in Wonderland (2010), Love and Other Drugs (2010), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Les Misérables (2012), Interstellar (2014) and The Intern (2015).

Hathaway portrayed princesses and appeared in family-oriented films over the next three years, subsequently becoming known in mainstream media as a children's role model. After voicing Haru Yoshioka for the English version of The Cat Returns (2002), she starred in Douglas McGrath's comedy-drama Nicholas Nickleby (2002), which opened to positive reviews. The Deseret News said that the cast was "terrific". The film did not enter wide release and failed at the North American box office, totaling less than $4 million in ticket sales. The fantasy romantic comedy film Ella Enchanted (2004), in which Hathaway played the titular character, also performed poorly at the box-office. She first read the book the film is based on when she was 16; she says that the script was originally much closer to the book, but didn't work as a film, and therefore prefers the film the way it became. The film opened to mostly mixed reviews. Hathaway sang three songs on the film's Soundtrack, including a duet with singer Jesse McCartney.

In 2003, Hathaway declined the role for Joel Schumacher's The Phantom of the Opera (2004), because the production schedule of the film overlapped with The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement (2004). Hathaway was initially hesitant and nervous about starring in the sequel, but agreed to it after Marshall convinced her that she was not repeating anything. The film was released in August 2004 to negative reviews, but made $95.1 million against a $40 million budget.

In 2004, Hathaway began a romantic relationship with Italian real estate developer Raffaello Follieri. Follieri's Manhattan-based foundation, established in 2003, focused on efforts such as providing vaccinations for children in poor countries. In June 2008, it was investigated by the IRS, for failure to file required nonprofit information forms. In June 2008, Follieri was arrested on charges of defrauding Investors out of millions of dollars in a scheme in which Follieri posed as the Vatican's point man on real-estate investing. It was reported that the FBI confiscated Hathaway's private journals from Follieri's New York City apartment as part of their ongoing investigation into Follieri's activities. Hathaway was not charged with any crime. In October 2008, after earlier pleading guilty, Follieri was sentenced to four and a half years in prison.

Hathaway starred alongside Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal in Ang Lee's drama Brokeback Mountain (2005). The film depicts the emotional and sexual relationship between two married men, Ennis (Ledger) and Jack (Gyllenhaal); Hathaway played Jack's wife. She was originally sent the script with the role of Alma, Ennis' wife, but decided to audition for Lureen once she read the screenplay. During her audition, Hathaway lied to Lee about her knowledge of horse riding so he would cast her; she subsequently took horse riding lessons. The film received positive reviews from critics and several Academy Award nominations. Peter Travers of Rolling Stone believed that Hathaway "excels at showing Lureen's journey from cutie-pie to hard case", and Todd McCarthy of Variety opined she "provides an entertaining contrast in wifely disappointment". Hathaway later stated that the content of the film was more important than its award count and that making it made her more aware of the kind of stories she wanted to tell as an Actress. At that point, she realized that she wanted to play roles to move her audiences or otherwise entertain them so much that they forget about their own lives.

Hathaway has served as a long-term advocate for the Nike Foundation to raise awareness against child marriage. In July 2006, she spent a week in Nicaragua to help vaccinate children against Hepatitis A. She has also traveled to other countries to heed the rights of women and girls, including Kenya and Ethiopia. In 2008, she was honored at Elle magazine's "Women in Hollywood" tribute, and won an award from the Human Rights Campaign for her philanthropy; she was also honored for her work with Step Up Women's Network in 2008. She then teamed up in 2010 with World Bank in a two-year development program The Girl Effect whose mission focuses on helping empower girls in developing and developed nations where one-third of young women are not employed and not in school. In 2013, she provided the narration for Girl Rising, a CNN documentary film, which focused on the power of female education as it followed seven girls around the world who sought to overcome obstacles and follow their dreams.

In early 2007, Hathaway spoke of her experiences with depression during her teenage years, saying that she eventually overcame the disorder without medication. In 2008, she began smoking after a stressful summer and the end of her relationship with Follieri. She credited quitting smoking for the subsequent decline in her stress level, and returned to being vegetarian. She later became a vegan in early 2012, but quit while filming Interstellar in August 2014.

In October 2008, Hathaway hosted the NBC late-night Sketch comedy Saturday Night Live. She also starred in Peter Segal's film adaptation of Mel Brooks' television series Get Smart, in which she played Agent 99, a role she describes as "narcissistic—downright selfish". Considering the role to be "a childhood dream come true", Hathaway learned martial arts and dancing techniques in preparation. While filming an action sequence, Hathaway split the flesh of her shin to the bone, which led to her receiving 15 Stitches. The film, centering on an analyst who dreams of becoming a real field agent and a better spy, was a financial success. Hathaway's following film, the American-Canadian mystery thriller Passengers alongside Patrick Wilson, was a critical and commercial failure. She then starred with Debra Winger in Rachel Getting Married as Kym, a young woman, who after being released from drug rehabilitation, returns home for her sister's wedding. Rachel Getting Married premiered at the 2008 Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals and Hathaway garnered widespread acclaim for her performance. Peter Travers called Hathaway "raw and riveting as Kym" and added that she "acts the hell out of it, achieving a state of sorrowful grace." Hathaway's performance garnered nominations for an Academy Award for Best Actress and a Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Drama.

Hathaway starred in Bride Wars (2009), which she described as "hideously commercial – gloriously so". The romantic comedy, in which she and Kate Hudson played two best friends who become rivals after their weddings are scheduled on the same day, was a critical failure; it was named among the 10 worst chick flicks of all time by Time in 2010. Despite this, the film was successful financially and earned Hathaway an MTV Movie Award for Best Female Performance nomination. She played the heroine Viola in a summer 2009 production of Twelfth Night at the Delacorte Theater in New York City. Charles Isherwood opined that Hathaway "dives smoothly and with obvious pleasure into the embrace of a cohesive ensemble cast". For her interpretation of the role, she garnered a nomination for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Actress in a Play. In 2010, she also won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for providing her voice for the episode "Once Upon a Time in Springfield" in The Simpsons. Hathaway voiced different characters in Family Guy in 2010 and 2011.

Hathaway has been nominated for two Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and a British Academy Film Award. She has won an Academy, a Golden Globe, a Screen Actors Guild and a BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress for Les Misérables. She has also won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance for her voice role in a 2010 episode of The Simpsons.

Hathaway's sex appeal has been picked up by several media outlets; FHM, People, AskMen, Maxim, Empire and Entertainment Weekly have included her in their yearly lists of sexiest women. In 2011, Los Angeles Times Magazine listed her as one of the 50 Most Beautiful Women in Film. Elsworth calls her "the hottest young Actress in Hollywood". Hathaway disagrees, insisting that she has a "good girl" image and no sex appeal. She has refused to undergo Botox, saying that she is comfortable in her own skin.

Hathaway married actor and businessman Adam Shulman on September 29, 2012, in Big Sur, California in a traditional Jewish ceremony. She gave birth to their son in 2016. That year, Hathaway purchased an apartment worth $2.55 million in Upper West Side, a neighborhood in Manhattan where she lives with Shulman and their child. Hathaway and Shulman sold their wedding photo and donated its profits to same-sex marriage advocacy group Freedom to Marry. They also hosted Freedom to Marry's National Engagement Party, an event which raised $500,000.

After briefly appearing in the romantic comedy Don Jon (2013), Hathaway starred in and co-produced (with her husband and others) Song One. In the drama film, she played an anthropology student who returns home to see her injured brother, Henry (played by Ben Rosenfield), a musician, and soon begins a romantic relationship with his favorite musician, James Forester (played by Johnny Flynn). Hathaway's character was initially written as 19 years old, but Kate Barker-Froyland, the film's Writer and Director, changed the part to that of an older woman after Hathaway was cast. Hathaway says that the reason she decided to produce the film was because of its depiction of the healing power of music and second chances. For the film's Soundtrack, she provided her voice for the song "Afraid of Heights". Song One premiered in the U.S. Dramatic Competition at the 30th Sundance Film Festival in January 2014, and released in theaters the following year to mixed reviews from critics. Commercially, the film failed to recover its $6 million budget.

John Hiscock of The Daily Telegraph finds Hathaway a "well-grounded, friendly young woman with a good sense of humour, a wide smile and an easy-going attitude". He says that despite considerable success Hathaway has never "gone Hollywood", staying close to her friends. The authors of the book 365 Style note Hathaway's girl next door image and Nancy Meyers (who directed her in The Intern) says she is "wise beyond her years". Laura Brown in Harper's Bazaar considers her to be a "sincere", "warm and funny" woman. After her Golden Globe acceptance speech for Les Misérables, members of the media began to dismiss her as "too-actress-y, over-eager" and inauthentic. Addressing this, Hathaway said in 2014 that she feels anxious speaking to the public, but has since grown from it and become a more compassionate person. Regarding her perceived image, she says, "People have this idea of me as just being a very prim, professional girl, which I suppose I am, but I do cut loose and have fun in my life".

Forbes reported Hathaway as one of the highest paid actresses of 2015, and since 2017 she is among the highest-grossing actresses of the 21st century. In 2009, Hathaway was included in Forbes' annual list of Celebrity 100 with earnings of $7 million, and was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Analyzing her earnings in 2010, the magazine included her in Hollywood's Best Actors for the Buck, the highest return profit among actresses. As of October 2017, her films have grossed $6.4 billion worldwide. Profiled as among the world's leading actresses by Vanity Fair, Hathaway, according to Catherine Elsworth of The Daily Telegraph, is pursued both by Directors and cosmetics companies. In January 2008, she joined French luxury perfumes and cosmetics house Lancôme as the face of their fragrance Magnifique. In 2011, Hathaway became the new face of the Italian company Tod's.

Hathaway currently serves on the board of the Lollipop Theatre Network, and is involved with charities the Creative Coalition, St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and the Human Rights Campaign. She is a supporter of LGBT rights and has donated money to organizations that support gay marriage . In 2016, Hathaway was appointed UN Women Goodwill ambassador, and later spoke on International Women's Day in 2017 in favor of paid parental leave for both men and women, and criticized Hollywood for gender inequality. In 2018, she collaborated with 300 women in Hollywood to set up the Time's Up initiative to protect women from harassment and discrimination.