He worked in the financial market, in the shipbuilding industry, as a communications executive and became a well-known and influential figure in the society of Rio de Janeiro.

[1][2] Marinho joined public life in 2018 after being elected first deputy senator for Rio de Janeiro on Flávio Bolsonaro's ticket as a member of the Social Liberal Party (PSL).

The location was used to record the election programs and, after the victory at the polls, to hold the first formal transition meeting and ministerial composition of the current federal government.

[7] Paulo Marinho started working at the age of 14 as a helper for Ronaldo Xavier de Lima, owner of Excelsior Seguros and husband of former Miss Brazil Martha Rocha.

He also established the independent video production company Press Vídeo, which produced the journalistic TV program Dia D, on Rede Bandeirantes, with several journalists, such as Zózimo Barroso do Amaral, Belisa Ribeiro, Fernando Gabeira, Miriam Leitão, William Waack, Augusto Nunes, Ricardo Boechat and Marcos Sá Corrêa.

[2][11][12] In 1992, he was introduced to businessman Nelson Tanure by his friend and lawyer, Sergio Bermudes, and began working in the shipbuilding sector at the Verolme shipyard in Angra dos Reis, one of the largest in the world.

It recognizes authorities and personalities who, in the exercise of their activities, have contributed, directly or indirectly, with outstanding services to the legal culture and the Judiciary of Rio de Janeiro.

In 2004, besides being a member of the Social Communication Council (Conselho de Comunicação Social - CCS) of the National Congress, at the time chaired by Dom Orani Tempesta, Marinho was awarded the Medal of Judicial Merit, the highest honorary distinction of the Court of Justice of the Federal District and Territories (Tribunal de Justiça do Distrito Federal e dos Territórios - TJDFT).

[20][21] In the same year, Marinho organized two major events with the Rio de Janeiro business community in support of João Dória, the then mayor of São Paulo, with whom he had been personal friends for decades.

Marinho's residence in Jardim Botânico became a meeting place for the campaign's main collaborators, including Paulo Guedes, Onyx Lorenzoni and Julian Lemos.

On the eve of the PSL convention, Marinho was invited by Flávio Bolsonaro, the president's eldest son, to be his first deputy in the Federal Senate.

On May 17, 2020, in an interview with Folha de S. Paulo, Marinho revealed that Flavio Bolsonaro said that he knew that Operation Furna da Onça, which targeted Fabrício Queiroz, would be launched.

Tasked with revitalizing the party in the state after the PSDB's worst electoral performance in decades, he summoned Bebianno to assume the pre-candidacy for mayor.

After Bebianno's death on March 14, 2020, Marinho was chosen by Doria and Araújo to occupy the position of PSDB pre-candidate for the mayor of Rio de Janeiro in the 2020 election.

Guided by Dória's mantra that the "new PSDB" should attract more "young people and women", Marinho contacted Mariana Ribas, the city's former culture secretary, which provoked criticism.

On March 15, 2020, after deliberations made by Dória and Araújo, Marinho was chosen to take on the position of PSDB pre-candidate for the mayor of Rio de Janeiro in the 2020 election.

The apartments they lived in together in Ipanema and Copacabana were the location of many high society parties in Rio in the 1970s, attended by figures such as Frank Sinatra, Mick Jagger, Valentino Garavani, Michel Legrand, Rod Stewart, Elton John, Bob Colacello, Marisa Berenson, Ursula Andress, Alain Delon, Peter Frampton, Candice Bergen and Elsa Martinelli.