🔗 Share this article

Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and at once starts an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding truly regretful. Although she's only a bit late, she needs to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, for a writer, this is exactly what you want to encounter. Besides, it’s fairly expected. Anyone familiar with the fearlessly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with her creative partner and starred in with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can understand that she has plenty to say, ranging from on gender, relationships, or the appeal of starting a high-school combat group. And, once you finish the new seasonal show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has additional thoughts about the darker side of young adulthood (As a millennial, she represents an honorary member of the gang, a tale-end millennial skilled for straddling different age groups).

Inspirations and Storytelling Approach

Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is enthusiastic, citing the show in addition to Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as influences for I Love LA, which follows the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also fledgling talent manager Maia. Perhaps, the most significant influence on creative vision was reserved for Entourage, the program focusing on a rising Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it during the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and resolved to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.

“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The inspiration for this project originated—in part—from her own, initially fractious, relocation to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a popular event for astrology heads. That period marked a phase that saw her learn major truths, professionally 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. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Humble Origins

Raised in New England, Sennott began writing and performing stand-up while pursuing acting at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at open mics with Edebiri and uploading uproarious (and distinctly) bizarre online content on the internet. One, Baby Cult, depicted characters fetishistically drawn to motherhood; a different one envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being caught in a scary movie. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and ended up appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her path, she notes, has been peers offering opportunities, instead of established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she confirms, adding humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”

Manifesting Dreams

Those who had doubts about her earlier will likely be regretting it now. Through she labels a “incredibly circular” development, she appears to created the perfect project. Previously she uploaded content titled “it’s LA” on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a series about LA residents juggling advantages of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being suspected of being a substance-abusing stealer, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). It would be easy to produce a program about digital influence that was overly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. This show steers clear of each, resulting in a portrait of advantaged millennial life that’s candid about the grot and the appeal.

Balanced Perspective

“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” she says. “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