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Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and right away begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing genuinely apologetic. Although she's only a bit late, she wants to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s exactly what one hopes to experience. Moreover, it’s quite unsurprising. Viewers familiar with her fearlessly queer and outspoken movie Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with her creative partner and featured in together with close companion Ayo Edebiri—will already know that Sennott has much to discuss, whether about roles, intimacy, or the pros of starting a high-school fight club. Plus, once you finish the recent eight-part HBO series I Love LA, viewers realize that the star carries further insights regarding the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott is a bridge for this generation, a tale-end millennial adept for connecting different age groups).

Influences and Storytelling Approach

Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is a fan, referencing the show alongside Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as influences for I Love LA, which tracks the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and close companion who is also new agent Maia. Notably, the largest presence on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, the program about a rising celebrity making his way in a gritty entertainment industry (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and resolved to put her own twist 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 says. The concept for I Love LA emerged—to some extent—from her own, initially rocky, transition to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a popular event for enthusiasts. This represented an era that saw her understand some big truths, in her career and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Starting Out

Raised in Connecticut, Sennott started creating and acting humor while enrolled in performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “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 decided to act independently, performing at live shows with her friend and uploading hilarious (and decidedly) weird skits on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women intensely fixated on motherhood; another envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and eventually appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a religious event with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her path, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she repeats, continuing with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Rising Success

Anyone who had doubts regarding her earlier will certainly be kicking themselves currently. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” development, she has achieved the perfect project. Previously she posted a video called on LA life on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a show about Angelenos balancing advantages of internet fame (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled criminal, and perhaps becoming a risky persona non grata). It would be simple to produce a program about online fame that was overly idealized—or, worse, one that belittled at the characters. This show avoids both, resulting in a depiction of advantaged twentysomething existence that’s frank about the grot and the appeal.

Balanced Perspective

“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