She is known for co-writing and playing both the lead female and male counterpart roles in the film Liquid Sky. She also played a minor role of Victoria in the 1985 Susan Seidelman film Desperately Seeking Susan, the cross dresser prostitute Gwendoline in Crocodile Dundee and starred in an episode of TV series Miami Vice. Carlisle also adapted and wrote a novel version of her cult, new wave film Liquid Sky.

Carlisle posed for Playboy in 1984.

In 2014 in an interview with The Awl it was confirmed by Liquid Sky director Slava Tsukerman, a sequel, Liquid Sky 2, was in the works. Anne Carlisle would be returning in the sequel in the role of Margaret.