Plait has contributed to a number of television and cinema productions, either onscreen as host or guest or in an advisory role offscreen. He hosted the three-part documentary series "Phil Plait's "Bad Universe"" on the Discovery Channel, which first aired in the United States on August 29, 2010 but was not picked up as a series. He has appeared in numerous science documentaries and programs including How the Universe Works. Plait was a science advisor for the 2016 movie Arrival and the 2017 CBS TV Series Salvation. He was the head science writer of the 2017 show Bill Nye Saves the World on Netflix.