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Rachel Sennott joins the video call and right away launches into an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, appearing truly remorseful. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs 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!” Fortunately, in this context, this is exactly what you want to experience. Besides, it’s fairly predictable. Those who know the unapologetically openly gay and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—that Sennott penned with the director and featured in with close companion the talented actress—would understand that she has much to discuss, ranging from on identity, intimacy, or the pros of forming a youth combat group. And, after watching the new seasonal show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds even more perspectives on the darker side of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott is a bridge for this generation, straddling eras with a knack for connecting both generations).

Influences and Artistic Direction

The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott is enthusiastic, naming it alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as guides for I Love LA, which tracks the travails of online personality Tallulah and close companion and aspiring representative portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the biggest presence on creative vision was reserved for Entourage, that show focusing on an emerging celebrity making his way in an often-seedy LA scene (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it throughout the pandemic, became “captivated”, and chose to create a new version 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 notes. The idea for the series emerged—partly—from her own, initially rocky, transition to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. It was an era that saw her grasp some big life lessons, in her career and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Humble Origins

Growing up in New England, the star started creating and acting humor while studying acting at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

Sennott seized control, appearing at live shows with Ayo and sharing hilarious (and distinctly) bizarre online content online. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women obsessively fixated on pregnancy; a different one imagined being employed at the brand Hollister as like being caught in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her career, she notes, has been peers supporting her, instead of established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, adding amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who were skeptical about her then will certainly be kicking themselves currently. As part of she describes as a “wild, full-circle” development, she has manifested an ideal role. Previously she posted a video titled about Los Angeles on social media, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos juggling the perks of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a risky persona non grata). It would be simple to produce a program about online fame that was horribly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at the characters. I Love LA does neither, creating a portrait of affluent millennial existence that’s honest about the chaos and the appeal.

Empathetic Approach

“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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