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Rachel Sennott joins the video call and immediately launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, seeming truly regretful. She is only slightly behind, she wants to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, in this context, this is precisely what is ideal to experience. Additionally, it’s fairly unsurprising. Those who know her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and featured in together with collaborator The Bear’s standout—will be aware that she has plenty to say, be it about gender, relationships, or the merits of starting a teen fight club. Furthermore, once you finish her latest multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries even more perspectives about the darker side of young adulthood (At 30, Sennott represents a bridge to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial skilled for straddling millennials and Gen Z).

Influences and Artistic Direction

The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, naming it alongside the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for I Love LA, which details the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and aspiring talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the largest influence on the moodboard was reserved for the HBO series, the show focusing on an up-and-coming A-list actor navigating in an often-seedy LA scene (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it during the pandemic, became “hooked”, and decided 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 concept for the series emerged—partly—from her own, initially fractious, transition to Los Angeles and from her cosmic event, a frequently discussed occurrence for enthusiasts. This represented a phase that saw her understand some big insights, work-wise and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” 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…”

Early Beginnings

Growing up in New England, the star started developing and showcasing comedy while pursuing acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “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. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

She seized control, taking the stage at live shows with her friend and posting uproarious (and very) bizarre comedy videos on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, followed several females fetishistically fixated on pregnancy; another envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as like being caught in a thriller. By chance, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and ultimately starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. The central motif of her career, she explains, has been people her own age giving her a shot, as opposed to the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she confirms, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Those who were skeptical regarding Sennott earlier will surely be regretting it now. As part of she calls a “astonishingly complete” development, she appears to created her dream vehicle. Previously she posted a clip named about Los Angeles on social media, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a show about LA residents managing the perks of internet fame (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your friend being labeled as being a substance-abusing thief, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). One might tempting to create a series about internet celebrity that was extremely glamorous—or, more problematic, one that punched down at its subjects. I Love LA steers clear of each, making for a representation of affluent twentysomething life that’s honest about the chaos and the glamour.

Balanced Perspective

“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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