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Rachel Sennott joins the video call and right away begins an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, seeming really apologetic. Although she's only a bit delayed, she wants to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s precisely what is ideal to encounter. Besides, it’s quite expected. Anyone who know her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and outspoken project Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in with collaborator the talented actress—would already know that she has a lot to share, be it on identity, relationships, or the appeal of creating a teen combat group. And, by the end her recent seasonal show I Love LA, viewers realize that the star has even more perspectives about the challenges of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as a bridge to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).

Inspirations and Storytelling Approach

Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, referencing the show alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as influences for her series, which tracks the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also aspiring representative Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the biggest influence on the moodboard went to the HBO series, the program depicting an up-and-coming celebrity succeeding in an often-seedy LA scene (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it during lockdown, became “captivated”, and resolved to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The idea for I Love LA originated—in part—from her own, at first rocky, relocation to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for followers. This represented a phase that saw her learn major truths, professionally 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. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Early Beginnings

Raised in New England, the star started writing and performing stand-up while pursuing acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

She took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at live shows with her friend and sharing hilarious (and very) unconventional comedy videos online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters fetishistically obsessed with having babies; another envisioned working at the brand Hollister as similar to being caught in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually starring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of the intense thriller. The big theme of her career, she notes, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, as opposed to the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Rising Success

Anyone who were skeptical regarding Sennott then will surely be regretting it now. In what she describes as a “incredibly circular” development, she appears to created the perfect project. A few years back she uploaded content called on LA life on the internet, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a series about LA residents juggling benefits of internet fame (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being labeled as being a substance-abusing thief, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). One might simple to create a show about digital influence that was horribly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that belittled at its subjects. I Love LA steers clear of each, making for a depiction of affluent young adult existence that’s frank about the mess 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