Rachel Sennott on the uproarious series portraying the grotty allure of today's youth existence

The performer joins the online meeting and at once starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding truly regretful. She is only slightly behind, she needs to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is exactly what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those familiar with the fearlessly LGBTQ+ and outspoken film Bottoms—which she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can understand that Sennott holds plenty to discuss, be it about gender, sex, or the appeal of creating a high-school fight club. Furthermore, after watching her latest seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds further perspectives on the darker side of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott serves as a bridge for this generation, a tale-end millennial with a knack for bridging different age groups).

Influences and Creative Vision

Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges a fan, referencing it in addition to Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which details the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and her friend and fledgling talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the biggest presence on creative vision belonged to the HBO series, the program depicting a rising celebrity succeeding in a gritty Hollywood (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She began viewing it during the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and resolved to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The concept for this project came—to some extent—from personal, initially rocky, relocation to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. That period marked an era that saw her grasp major truths, in her career and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” 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 resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Starting Out

Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott began creating and acting comedy while enrolled in theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “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 took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing uproarious (and decidedly) unconventional skits on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on several females intensely obsessed with motherhood; another envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she says, has been peers giving her a shot, rather than the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, adding humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”

Career Breakthrough

Anyone who questioned regarding Sennott previously will likely be kicking themselves now. In what she describes as a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have achieved her dream vehicle. In 2019 she shared content titled on LA life online, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos managing the perks of online celebrity (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled criminal, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). One might simple to make a series about internet celebrity that was horribly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at its subjects. The series avoids both, creating a representation of affluent twentysomething life that’s candid about the grot and the shine.

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 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