🔗 Share this article

The star joins the digital interview and right away starts an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, appearing genuinely regretful. Although she's only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, for a writer, this is exactly what is ideal to encounter. Moreover, it’s quite expected. Those familiar with the boldly queer and brash film titled Bottoms—which Sennott penned with the director and appeared in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can understand that Sennott holds plenty to discuss, be it about identity, sex, or the pros of starting a high-school fight club. Furthermore, once you finish her recent multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that she carries additional insights regarding the challenges of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott is a relatable figure of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for connecting different age groups).

Inspirations and Creative Vision

Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being an admirer, naming the show together with Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which details the journey of online personality Tallulah and ally and fledgling talent manager Maia. Notably, the largest spot on creative vision went to the popular sitcom, that program about a rising A-list actor succeeding in a corrupt Hollywood (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it during lockdown, became “hooked”, and chose to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The idea for I Love LA emerged—in part—from personal, initially difficult, transition to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about event for enthusiasts. It was a time that involved her learn some big truths, professionally and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Starting Out

Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott started developing and showcasing stand-up while pursuing acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

Sennott took matters into her own hands, appearing at open mics with Ayo and sharing hilarious (and very) bizarre comedy videos digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, followed several females intensely drawn to motherhood; a different one envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being stuck in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, rather than traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, continuing with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who questioned about Sennott then will surely be regretting it currently. Through she labels a “wild, full-circle” story, she has manifested an ideal role. A few years back she posted a video named on LA life on social media, in which she lampooned film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about city dwellers juggling advantages of online celebrity (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being labeled as being a substance-abusing stealer, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). One might tempting to create a series about internet celebrity that was extremely glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, making for a representation of affluent twentysomething existence that’s candid about the grot and the shine.

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 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