🔗 Share this article

Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and right away launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, sounding truly apologetic. She is only a bit late, she feels compelled to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s precisely what you want to hear. Moreover, it’s fairly expected. Viewers who know her unapologetically openly gay and brash film titled Bottoms—which she penned with her creative partner and appeared in together with close companion The Bear’s standout—can understand that she possesses a lot to say, whether on identity, intimacy, or the merits of forming a high-school brawl society. Plus, after watching her latest eight-part program I Love LA, it is clear that she has even more perspectives regarding the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, she is an honorary member for this generation, straddling eras with a knack for connecting different age groups).

Influences and Artistic Direction

Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress readily acknowledges enthusiastic, referencing it together with the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for her series, which follows the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and ally and new talent manager Maia. Notably, the most significant influence on the moodboard was reserved for Entourage, that HBO sitcom depicting an emerging celebrity succeeding in a corrupt Hollywood (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The inspiration for I Love LA emerged—partly—from firsthand, at first fractious, move to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. This represented a time that involved her grasp significant truths, professionally and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Starting Out

Brought up in New England, Sennott commenced developing and showcasing humor while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” 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, performing at live shows with Edebiri and posting hilarious (and very) bizarre skits on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, followed several females obsessively fixated on pregnancy; another imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being caught in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a religious event with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she says, has been peers offering opportunities, as opposed to the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, adding humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”

Manifesting Dreams

Those who questioned about her then will surely be feeling foolish now. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have created her dream vehicle. Previously she uploaded content called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she mocked film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a show about city dwellers balancing the perks of digital stardom (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being accused of being a substance-abusing stealer, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). Some could simple to produce a show about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. This show steers clear of each, making for a representation of privileged twentysomething existence that’s candid about the mess and the glamour.

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