🔗 Share this article

Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and at once begins an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, seeming really apologetic. She is only a couple of minutes behind, she wants to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, during an interview, that’s just what one hopes to encounter. Additionally, it’s fairly unsurprising. Those who have seen her boldly openly gay and outspoken project titled Bottoms—that she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in together with collaborator The Bear’s standout—will understand that she holds much to say, whether on gender, intimacy, or the appeal of creating a youth fight club. Furthermore, by the end her latest multi-episode show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries even more perspectives regarding the darker side of young adulthood (As a millennial, she is a relatable figure for this generation, a tale-end millennial with a knack for bridging both generations).

Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction

Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and Sennott is enthusiastic, naming the show together with the classic series, Insecure and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which details the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and close companion who is also fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the most significant spot on the moodboard went to Entourage, the HBO sitcom focusing on an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in a gritty LA scene (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it amid COVID-19, became “captivated”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The idea for the series came—to some extent—from firsthand, at first fractious, move to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. This represented a phase that involved her learn some big life lessons, in her career and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Humble Origins

Raised in the East Coast, Sennott began writing and performing stand-up while enrolled in acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

Sennott seized control, performing at live shows with her friend and sharing hysterical (and distinctly) weird skits digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted several females fetishistically obsessed with having babies; another imagined working at the brand Hollister as akin to being stuck in a scary movie. Interestingly, she met Emma through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her journey, she says, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, as opposed to traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Individuals who were skeptical regarding her previously will likely be feeling foolish now. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she appears to achieved an ideal role. A few years back she posted a video called about Los Angeles online, in which she parodied film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a comedy about Angelenos juggling advantages of internet fame (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). It would be easy to make a program about online fame that was extremely idealized—or, worse, one that punched down at its subjects. The series avoids both, creating a representation of advantaged young adult life that’s honest about the mess 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