Akhila Anand was born and brought up in Trivandrum, Kerala. Her father was a government school teacher, and her mother worked in the secretariat. She has an elder sister. Akhila started learning Carnatic music at the age of 5 and trained under A. Saraswati Ammaal and later, Dr. S. Bhagyalakshmy. She attended three government schools and obtained a degree in commerce. Akhila began performing at the age of 14 and joined Devarajan Master's chorus group after being introduced by Mr. Prakash, one of his disciples. She then met anchor Mala Parvathy, who suggested her for an anchoring job in a TV channel called Kairali TV. From there, she went on to host numerous TV shows and live events for various channels, including Asianet, Kairali, and Surya TV. She also did some shows for Doordarshan. Balachandra Menon, who hosted a musical show called "Sallapam" on Doordarshan, introduced Akhila to his programs and suggested that her voice was suitable for dubbing. Akhila then pursued a course in professional dubbing and went on to become a successful dubbing artist. She has lent her voice to numerous serials and a few movies. In 2004, Akhila got married, and later, she met director Jayaraj. Sunil Parameswaran, the scriptwriter of the movie Ananthabhadram, introduced her to Jayaraj during the making of "By the People." In 2006, she got an opportunity to meet Jayaraj again, and he noticed her singing talent. He then introduced her as a playback singer for the movie "Aswaroodan," and she sang a duet song with Jassie Gift called "Azhakalila Manja Charadile Poothali."