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Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and right away starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding really regretful. Despite being only slightly behind, she feels compelled to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, for a writer, this is exactly what is ideal to experience. Additionally, it’s pretty predictable. Those who know the fearlessly openly gay and brash movie titled Bottoms—that Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that she holds much to discuss, whether about gender, relationships, or the pros of starting a youth brawl society. Furthermore, once you finish her recent seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star carries further insights on the struggles of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott represents a relatable figure to younger audiences, straddling eras with a knack for bridging different age groups).

Inspirations and Artistic Direction

Parallels to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, citing the show together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as influences for her series, which details the travails of online personality Tallulah and close companion and aspiring talent manager Maia. Perhaps, the largest influence on creative vision went to the HBO series, the HBO sitcom focusing on an up-and-coming Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it amid the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose 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 notes. The concept for I Love LA came—partly—from her own, initially fractious, transition to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for followers. It was a time that saw her grasp some big truths, work-wise and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” 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 resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Starting Out

Brought up in New England, the star began writing and performing stand-up while enrolled in theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at amateur nights with her friend and sharing hilarious (and very) unconventional comedy videos online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed characters intensely drawn to having babies; another envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a thriller. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a religious event with echoes of the intense thriller. The big theme of her career, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, stating with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who had doubts regarding Sennott earlier will surely be kicking themselves now. In what she labels a “incredibly circular” development, she has achieved the perfect project. In 2019 she shared content named “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a comedy about Angelenos balancing the perks of internet fame (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable persona non grata). It would be tempting to produce a show about online fame that was extremely idealized—or, worse, one that punched down at those depicted. This show avoids both, making for a representation of privileged twentysomething life that’s frank about the mess and the shine.

Empathetic Approach

“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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