🔗 Share this article

The star joins the video call and at once launches into an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing genuinely remorseful. Despite being only a couple of minutes delayed, she feels compelled to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s exactly what you want to hear. Additionally, it’s quite predictable. Viewers who know her boldly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and starred in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will already know that Sennott possesses much to share, be it about identity, intimacy, or the merits of creating a teen fight club. And, once you finish the new multi-episode show titled I Love LA, it is clear that she carries further insights regarding the darker side of modern youth (As a millennial, Sennott is a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp with a knack for straddling millennials and Gen Z).

Guiding Lights and Creative Vision

The comparisons to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being an admirer, referencing the show alongside the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as guides for I Love LA, which tracks the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and ally and aspiring representative Sennott’s character. However, the most significant influence on creative vision went to Entourage, the HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming celebrity succeeding in a gritty LA scene (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it amid COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and resolved to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she notes. The concept for I Love LA originated—in part—from her own, initially fractious, transition to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. It was an era that saw her learn major life lessons, work-wise and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Starting Out

Raised in the East Coast, the star began creating and acting comedy while pursuing acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

Sennott seized control, appearing at open mics with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and decidedly) unconventional skits on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on several females intensely fixated on having babies; a different one portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being caught in a thriller. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and ended up starring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a religious event with shades of the intense thriller. The central motif of her journey, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Individuals who were skeptical regarding Sennott previously will certainly be regretting it now. In what she describes as a “incredibly circular” story, she appears to created the perfect project. In 2019 she posted a clip called about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she lampooned movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a show about Angelenos balancing benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being labeled as being a intoxicated thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable persona non grata). It would be easy to produce a show about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at those depicted. This show steers clear of each, making for a depiction of affluent millennial existence that’s honest about the grot and the appeal.

Balanced Perspective

“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