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Rachel Sennott enters the video call and at once starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, appearing genuinely regretful. Although she's only a bit behind, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, in this context, this is exactly what one hopes to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty predictable. Viewers who know the boldly openly gay and outspoken project titled Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and starred in alongside close companion the talented actress—can be aware that Sennott has much to say, be it about gender, intimacy, or the pros of starting a youth combat group. Plus, once you finish her new multi-episode show I Love LA, it is clear that the star has additional thoughts about the darker side of modern youth (As a millennial, Sennott serves as a bridge to younger audiences, straddling eras adept for connecting both generations).

Influences and Creative Vision

The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, referencing it alongside the HBO hit, Insecure and the innovative program as inspirations for I Love LA, which follows the travails of a social media star Tallulah and her friend who is also aspiring talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the largest presence on the moodboard went to the popular sitcom, that show about an emerging A-list actor succeeding in a corrupt entertainment industry (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it throughout lockdown, became “captivated”, and resolved to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The inspiration for I Love LA came—to some extent—from her own, initially difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about phenomenon for followers. This represented an era that involved her understand some big life lessons, work-wise and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Early Beginnings

Brought up in New England, Sennott began writing and performing comedy while pursuing theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

She seized control, taking the stage at live shows with Edebiri and uploading uproarious (and very) unconventional comedy videos digitally. One, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely drawn to motherhood; a different one imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a thriller. By chance, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up appearing in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her path, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, instead of established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Those who were skeptical about her previously will likely be feeling foolish currently. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she uploaded a video titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about Angelenos juggling advantages of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a substance-abusing criminal, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). It would be easy to produce a show about digital influence that was extremely idealized—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at the characters. The series does neither, creating a depiction of affluent millennial living that’s honest about the mess and the appeal.

Balanced Perspective

“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” she says. “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