Annies Kanmani Joy was born in the village of Pampakuda in the Ernakulam district of Kerala, to Leela and Parappalil Joy who were farmers.[2][3] In her early years she had intended to become a doctor and sat for the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) examination.[3] She graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing from the in 2009 and entered into a one-year internship at the Trivandrum Medical College.[2][4] In 2010, she gave the Civil Services Examination for the first time, received a rank of 580 and began training for the Indian Civil Accounts Service (ICAS) at Faridabad, Haryana.[4] In 2012, she attempted the services examination for a second time and was able to secure a rank of 65 which enabled her to join the Indian Administrative Service (IAS).[3][4] For the examinations, she had also opted for psychology and Malayalam literature as her optional subjects.[2]
In the Indian Administrative Service, she was posted as an assistant commissioner at Bidar, Karnataka and then as a civil servant at the Karnataka Bhavan in New Delhi.[1] Following which she was posted as the chief executive officer in the Zilla Panchayat in Tumakuru, Karnataka.[1][5] In 2019, she was transferred and promoted as the deputy commissioner of the Kodagu district in Karnataka.[5] In March 2020, with the first reported instances of the COVID-19 pandemic in Karnataka, Joy had imposed an early lockdown in the district and shut down tourist spots much before the imposition of a national lockdown.[1] During the pandemic, the district had strict containment protocols and emerged as one of the few where no cases were reported for a period of 28 consecutive days.[5][6] She was credited for a successful break in transmission in the district and received national recognition as a result.[5]