Anil Cassirer was born the son of Paul Cassirer, a German singer, and Karen Marten, a shampoo model turned muse, in Indio, California in the late 70s. The first of the couple's three children together, Anil was bright and adventurous, happy to spend the day running around his parents house, accompanying his father to and from the studio to watch him record. Anil was doted on by his parents, though Paul spent a lot of time out of the house and off working. His mother taught him the ways of meditation and serenity, instilling a deep respect for all life in her young son, which made sibling rivalry obsolete once his brother, Brahma and sister, Indira followed. Life wasn't entirely happy for Paul and Karen, and once their spiritual beliefs started to divide, Karen and Paul parted, Karen with the family guru, Phil, and Paul eventually remarrying a young blonde known as Suze. Anil assimilated to this change rather well. It was easy when so much of your parents' personal lives were disclosed at a young age.

In a less-spiritual but still communal environment, Anil and his brother and sister moved with Phil to Santa Cruz, where they were joined with two teen step-sisters, Sita and Padma. Anil was no longer the oldest in the household, but his upbringing was quite typical. School came easy for him, and he excelled at history and English, finding a love for the arts early on that was nurtured by his mother and step-father. He participated in every musical endeavor he could, including band and chorus, and also found himself taking the advanced art courses offered by his high school. Anil was adept at collage, photography and installation art, and built up enough of a portfolio to get accepted into the Visual Arts program at Bennington College, where he would attend the following fall.

Throughout high school and college, Anil maintained a steady stream of contact with his father and Suze, though Paul was often touring and absent. They did most of their father-son bonding on the phone, which Anil understood was the way of things. If asked, he'd say he and his father had a pretty normal relationship, though Paul was undoubtedly a questionable contender in Anil's life. College and beyond also brought about the realization that people knew who Anil's father was, and that the intimate details of his life with his mother were rather well-known. As a child, Anil wasn't exposed to the public eye, so it was easy to forget what his father and mother had done for a living. Anil managed well and made a vow to himself to avoid ever riding on his father's coattails through life.

Anil excelled in college, enjoying the spoils of life far from home and personal discovery. He made friends easily and enjoyed his time at Bennington and the internships that followed. His short films maintained a decent reception among his peers and constituents in the film world, and from there, Anil parlayed this success into working as a production assistant on small features and larger-scale music videos. His connections in the music video world allowed him to shop around his own short films and through world of mouth and much insisting, he was allowed to make his first real project, 1997's music video for Daft Punk's feature single, Around the World.

From there, Anil was given an opportunity to direct the film that he had been conceptualizing since his days at Bennington, a feature based on his experiences at private school entitled Rushmore. While the screenplay attracted high interest and buzz among the independent film world, funding was the major difficulty. The filming process was a constant set of back and forth between he and the studio for money, and while he enjoyed the directorial aspect of the work, he would begin a longstanding dislike of the studio-money situation surrounding filmmaking. Rushmore was also the beginning of his friendships and partnerships with both Bill Murray and Jason Schwartzman, both of whom have starred in many of Anil's later works.

Anil still questions whether his mild success as a writer/director is a result of his hard work or of his parentage. In 2005, as a shock to his entire family, Paul Cassirer died from respiratory failure. Upon his father's death, Anil realized how far he had been from his father, and how long it had been since they had last seen each other face to face. After his father's death, many speculated that Anil's next work, The Darjeeling Limited and in some ways, his first feature, dealt autobiographically, albeit loosely, with the death of his father. Anil declines to answer this question definitively. Currently, he resides in London with his long-term partner, their rescued Scottish fold cat, Lady and one very obedient Jack Russell, Milou.