🔗 Share this article

Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and at once starts an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, sounding really regretful. She is only a bit late, she needs to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is exactly what is ideal to hear. Additionally, it’s quite expected. Anyone who know her boldly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—which she co-wrote with the director and starred in alongside close companion The Bear’s standout—will understand that she possesses a lot to say, be it about identity, intimacy, or the pros of creating a high-school brawl society. And, by the end her latest seasonal program I Love LA, it is clear that she carries even more thoughts on the challenges of young adulthood (At 30, Sennott is an honorary member for this generation, straddling eras with a knack for connecting both generations).

Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction

The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott is a fan, referencing the show together with the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as influences for I Love LA, which follows the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also new talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the largest spot on the moodboard went to the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom about an up-and-coming Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt Hollywood (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and decided to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The concept for this project came—partly—from personal, originally fractious, relocation to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a popular occurrence for enthusiasts. It was an era that involved her grasp significant truths, in her career and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Humble Origins

Brought up in Connecticut, the star commenced writing and performing humor while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

Sennott seized control, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and sharing uproarious (and very) bizarre skits online. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed a group of women fetishistically obsessed with having babies; another portrayed working at the brand Hollister as like being caught in a horror film. Interestingly, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her initial project, 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 giving her a shot, instead of established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Individuals who questioned regarding her previously will surely be regretting it today. In what she labels a “astonishingly complete” development, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. A few years back she shared content titled “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about LA residents balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being accused of being a intoxicated criminal, and potentially becoming a risky persona non grata). One might easy to produce a show about digital influence that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that punched down at its subjects. The series does neither, making for a depiction of privileged millennial life that’s honest about the mess and the appeal.

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