🔗 Share this article

Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and at once launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, seeming genuinely regretful. She is only slightly delayed, she feels compelled to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, for a writer, this is just what you want to hear. Additionally, it’s fairly expected. Viewers who know the boldly queer and outspoken project Bottoms—that she collaborated on with the director and featured in together with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will already know that Sennott holds plenty to share, ranging from about roles, intimacy, or the pros of creating a teen brawl society. Plus, once you finish the recent multi-episode show I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries additional thoughts about the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents a relatable figure for this generation, straddling eras with a knack for bridging millennials and Gen Z).

Inspirations and Artistic Direction

The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott is an admirer, referencing it alongside the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as guides for the project, which details the struggles of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and fledgling representative Sennott’s character. Notably, the biggest spot on concept went to the HBO series, the show about a rising A-list actor succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it during lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The concept for I Love LA came—in part—from her own, initially difficult, move to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a frequently discussed event for astrology heads. It was a phase that included her understand some big life lessons, in her career and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Humble Origins

Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced developing and showcasing humor while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and uploading hilarious (and distinctly) bizarre comedy videos digitally. One, Baby Cult, depicted several females intensely obsessed with having babies; a different one imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as like being trapped in a thriller. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a Jewish wake with echoes of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her journey, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, as opposed to the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she confirms, adding humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who had doubts about her previously will likely be kicking themselves currently. Through she calls a “wild, full-circle” story, she has achieved the perfect project. In 2019 she posted a clip called about Los Angeles online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a comedy about city dwellers managing benefits of online celebrity (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your client being labeled as being a substance-abusing criminal, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). Some could simple to make a show about digital influence that was horribly aspirational—or, worse, one that punched down at the characters. I Love LA does neither, making for a representation of advantaged young adult life that’s candid about the chaos and the glamour.

Empathetic Approach

“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” she observes. “I think that young people have been through a lot – I’m mostly thinking of people younger than me, like my little sister, who went to college during Covid, so she had to come home, or my other sister who was doing school online.”|“The younger generation has faced significant