Marilyn Churley has served as a Toronto City Councillor, Member of Provincial Parliament, provincial Cabinet Minister, and Deputy Leader of the Ontario New Democratic Party and a Justice of the Peace in Ontario. She was also the first female Deputy Speaker of the Ontario Legislature. Before her time in public office, she held a number of senior positions in the not-for-profit sector including Executive Director of the Canadian Environmental Defence Fund and director of the Co-op Housing Federation of Toronto. She co-founded the Bain Avenue Day Care Centre and Citizens for a Safe Environment in her local community. She has written articles, op-ed pieces and book reviews for many publications including the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Sun, and Now Magazine. In 2015, Marilyn published a memoir called Shameless: The Fight for Adoption Disclosure and the Search for My Son (Between the Lines, 2015) about her personal and political experiences with adoption and adoption disclosure legislation. The publication was shortlisted as a finalist for the 2015 Speaker's Book Award. In 2017 she received an honorary doctor of laws degree from Memorial University in her home province of Newfoundland and Labrador “for her longstanding commitment to remedying social and environmental ills and for her role as a model for women in politics.”

Marilyn now resides in Leslieville in Toronto with her husband Richard.