Annie Frances Murphy was born on December 19, 1986 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Murphy is a graduate of both the Canadian Film Centre Actors’ Conservatory and the Theatre Performance Program at Concordia University. She is married to Hollerado singer, Menno Versteeg.

Murphy has worked in theatre in Montreal and Toronto. In 2007, she appeared in the made for television film, No Brother of Mine, as well as the Canadian comedy, The Business. In 2008, Murphy earned a spot in another television film, the Ashley Tisdale romantic comedy Picture This, and also appeared in the French mystery, Story of Jen. The following year, she appeared in the pilot episode of the Warner Brothers drama The Beautiful Life. In 2010, Murphy played the recurring role of Jill on Blue Mountain State, and also appeared in the Canadian comedy film Lick. She has also starred in the short films Overwatch and Saturday Night Special, and among her other television credits, she has appeared in Against The Wall, Good God, Beauty and the Beast, Flashpoint, and Rookie Blue. In 2015, Murphy took on the lead character of Morgan on the CBC comedy The Plateaus, a series which she also wrote and produced, featuring Elisha Cuthbert, Jay Baruchel, Sam Roberts, and Kevin MacDonald. That same year, she began her breakthrough role as Alexis Rose, alongside Eugene Levy, Catherine O’Hara, Chris Elliott and Dan Levy, in the award-winning CBC/ITV comedy Schitt’s Creek. She was nominated for a Canadian Screen Award for Best Actress in a Comedy for her work on the show. Murphy also guest co-hosted the first 2017 episode of the weekly Canadian television comedy This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

A script Murphy wrote and slipped into Michael Cera’s backpack was later found in a garbage can in his trailer. She has since made some edits, and is in the process of filming the pilot. In 2014, Murphy had to rebuild her wardrobe after losing everything in a still-unexplained house fire. Murphy joked on Twitter after receiving the part of Alexis Rose on Schitt’s Creek that one of the reasons she scored the role was because her eyebrows are similar in shape and size to the Eugene Levy’s.