Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and immediately starts an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, seeming really regretful. Although she's only a bit delayed, she feels compelled to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, during an interview, that’s precisely what is ideal to hear. Additionally, it’s pretty predictable. Those who have seen her boldly openly gay and brash project titled Bottoms—that she co-wrote with her creative partner and featured in alongside collaborator the talented actress—would already know that Sennott has a lot to say, ranging from about roles, sex, or the merits of forming a youth fight club. And, after watching the latest multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that she has even more insights about the struggles of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott serves as an honorary member to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for connecting different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott is a fan, naming it alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Atlanta as inspirations for her series, which tracks the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also new talent manager portrayed by Sennott. However, the most significant influence on creative vision went to Entourage, that show focusing on an emerging A-list actor succeeding in an often-seedy LA scene (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it during 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 originated—partly—from personal, originally fractious, move to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a frequently discussed occurrence for astrology heads. That period marked a phase that included her understand significant life lessons, in her career and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Raised in the East Coast, the star began writing and performing stand-up while enrolled in performance at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, appearing at open mics with Ayo and sharing hilarious (and decidedly) unconventional online content online. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed characters fetishistically obsessed with having babies; a different one envisioned working at the brand Hollister as akin to being caught in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her path, she explains, has been people her own age offering opportunities, rather than traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Those who had doubts about her earlier will likely be kicking themselves today. Through she calls a “incredibly circular” story, she has manifested her dream vehicle. In 2019 she posted a clip titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a series about LA residents balancing the perks of online celebrity (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your client being labeled as being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). Some could tempting to make a program about digital influence that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at those depicted. I Love LA avoids both, creating a depiction of advantaged millennial living that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.
Nuanced Portrayal
“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
