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Rachel Sennott joins the video call and right away starts an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming genuinely regretful. Despite being only slightly delayed, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, during an interview, this is precisely what is ideal to encounter. Additionally, it’s quite expected. Anyone who know the unapologetically openly gay and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—which she co-wrote with her creative partner and featured in alongside close companion Ayo Edebiri—will already know that she possesses much to share, be it on gender, relationships, or the pros of forming a teen brawl society. And, once you finish the recent eight-part program I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries additional thoughts on the struggles of modern youth (As a millennial, Sennott is a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp adept for bridging both generations).

Inspirations and Storytelling Approach

Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, citing it in addition to Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for her series, which tracks the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and aspiring representative Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the biggest influence on the moodboard went to Entourage, that HBO sitcom depicting a rising celebrity succeeding in an often-seedy Hollywood (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it throughout the pandemic, became “captivated”, and chose to add a fresh perspective on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The inspiration for the series originated—to some extent—from personal, originally rocky, transition to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a popular event for followers. It was a time that included her understand major insights, in her career and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “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 …”

Humble Origins

Brought up in New England, the star started developing and showcasing humor while pursuing theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “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.”

Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at open mics with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and very) bizarre online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically fixated on motherhood; another portrayed working at the brand Hollister as like being trapped in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a religious event with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been peers offering opportunities, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who had doubts about Sennott previously will certainly be kicking themselves currently. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” story, she seems to have manifested the perfect project. A few years back she posted a clip called “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she mocked film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a comedy about city dwellers managing advantages of online celebrity (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a risky pariah). One might simple to make a series about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. This show does neither, resulting in a depiction of privileged young adult existence that’s honest about the mess and the shine.

Empathetic Approach

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