🔗 Share this article

Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and immediately launches into an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, sounding truly remorseful. She is only a bit behind, she wants to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, during an interview, that’s exactly what is ideal to encounter. Moreover, it’s fairly expected. Anyone familiar with her boldly LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—that she penned with the director and appeared in alongside her friend The Bear’s standout—can understand that she holds much to share, whether on identity, sex, or the appeal of starting a high-school brawl society. Furthermore, once you finish the new multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds further perspectives on the challenges of modern youth (At 30, she is an honorary member for this generation, straddling eras skilled for connecting millennials and Gen Z).

Inspirations and Creative Vision

Parallels to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, naming it together with Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as influences for I Love LA, which tracks the struggles of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also new representative portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the largest presence on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, the program about a rising A-list actor navigating in a corrupt entertainment industry (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it amid the pandemic, became “captivated”, and resolved to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.

“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The concept for this project originated—in part—from firsthand, originally difficult, relocation to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a frequently discussed event for astrology heads. This represented a time that involved her learn major insights, work-wise and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Humble Origins

Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott began creating and acting humor while studying performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

She seized control, appearing at open mics with Edebiri and sharing hilarious (and very) unconventional comedy videos online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely obsessed with having babies; a different one portrayed working at the brand Hollister as similar to being caught in a scary movie. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ultimately featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her path, she notes, has been peers offering opportunities, as opposed to the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, adding with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Career Breakthrough

Anyone who questioned about Sennott earlier will certainly be kicking themselves currently. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” story, she seems to have created the perfect project. In 2019 she posted a clip titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a comedy about city dwellers managing advantages of internet fame (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your client being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be easy to create a series about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at its subjects. I Love LA steers clear of each, making for a representation of privileged millennial living that’s candid about the chaos and the glamour.

Nuanced Portrayal

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