Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and right away begins an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming really regretful. Although she's only a couple of minutes delayed, she feels compelled to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s precisely what one hopes to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty predictable. Viewers who have seen the fearlessly LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie Bottoms—which she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and featured in with close companion The Bear’s standout—would already know that she holds plenty to say, whether about identity, intimacy, or the pros of creating a high-school combat group. Plus, once you finish the new eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star has additional thoughts about the darker side of Gen Z life (At 30, she represents a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp with a knack for bridging different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott is enthusiastic, naming the show together with Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as guides for her series, which tracks the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and new representative portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the biggest spot on creative vision belonged to Entourage, the show depicting a rising A-list actor succeeding in a gritty Hollywood (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“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 difficult, relocation to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for astrology heads. This represented a time that involved her learn significant life lessons, professionally and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in New England, the star commenced writing and performing humor while enrolled in theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with Edebiri and posting uproarious (and distinctly) unconventional online content on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely drawn to pregnancy; another portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being stuck in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and eventually featuring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a religious event with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her career, she says, has been people her own age supporting her, as opposed to traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts about Sennott then will likely be regretting it today. Through she calls a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has created an ideal role. A few years back she posted content named on LA life on social media, in which she parodied film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents juggling advantages of internet fame (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being labeled as being a intoxicated criminal, and perhaps becoming a unreliable pariah). Some could simple to produce a program about digital influence that was extremely aspirational—or, more problematic, one that belittled at those depicted. This show avoids both, creating a portrait of privileged millennial life that’s candid about the mess and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“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
