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Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and immediately starts an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, seeming really remorseful. Despite being only a couple of minutes late, she needs to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s exactly what one hopes to hear. Besides, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone familiar with her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with her creative partner and appeared in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—can understand that Sennott has plenty to share, ranging from about identity, intimacy, or the merits of forming a high-school brawl society. Plus, once you finish her new seasonal show I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds even more insights on the struggles of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents an honorary member to younger audiences, on the cusp skilled for bridging different age groups).

Inspirations and Artistic Direction

Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, referencing it alongside the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as influences for her series, which details the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and aspiring agent Maia. Notably, the most significant presence on the moodboard went to Entourage, that show about a rising celebrity navigating in a gritty Hollywood (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it during the pandemic, became “hooked”, and decided to add a fresh perspective 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 explains. The idea for the series emerged—partly—from personal, initially rocky, move to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about phenomenon for followers. It was an era that included her learn major life lessons, work-wise 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 resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Humble Origins

Raised in New England, the star started developing and showcasing humor while studying performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. 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?”

Sennott decided to act independently, taking the stage at amateur nights with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and very) weird skits on the internet. One, Baby Cult, depicted several females obsessively drawn to motherhood; a different one portrayed working at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she explains, has been people her own age supporting her, rather than the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she confirms, stating with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who questioned regarding her previously will certainly be feeling foolish today. In what she labels a “astonishingly complete” story, she seems to have created the perfect project. A few years back she uploaded content called on LA life online, in which she mocked film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a series about LA residents balancing benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being labeled as being a intoxicated stealer, and potentially becoming a unreliable outcast). One might simple to produce a series about internet celebrity that was extremely aspirational—or, more problematic, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA steers clear of each, making for a depiction of advantaged young adult living that’s honest about the chaos and the appeal.

Nuanced Portrayal

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