Her music has been featured on several television shows, including Grey's Anatomy, How I Met Your Mother, The Real World, Castle, United States of Tara, Gossip Girl, Batwoman, The Vampire Diaries, and Supernatural.

She returned to Cupertino to earn her Bachelor of Arts degree in writing and linguistics from Santa Clara University, where she appeared in music video for Faith No More and episodes of The Mr. T Experience, Unsolved Mysteries and others.

[citation needed] In San Diego Marina played her first open mic night and began to write her own songs.

She developed a live show that included anecdotes and frank stories told between songs, and continued working as a DJ on the radio in San Diego while playing around town and, later, touring.

Her recorded debut was a five-song EP called Exercises in Racketeering, which eventually led to a full-length album, Miss Halfway, which was released January 25, 2005.

On September 10, 2009, "Move You" won the award for Song of the Year, beating out fellow nominees including Jack Tempchin and Jason Mraz.

[citation needed] In 2009, Marina moved to Portland, Oregon to write and record the album "Felony Flats", named after a local neighborhood.