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Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and immediately launches into an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming really apologetic. Although she's only a bit behind, 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, during an interview, that’s just what one hopes to experience. Additionally, it’s quite predictable. Anyone familiar with the boldly openly gay and brash movie Bottoms—which she collaborated on with her creative partner and featured in together with close companion The Bear’s standout—will already know that Sennott possesses a lot to share, whether on identity, intimacy, or the appeal of forming a high-school combat group. And, once you finish her new seasonal show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries further insights regarding the darker side of modern youth (At 30, she is a bridge to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for straddling both generations).

Inspirations and Creative Vision

Parallels to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, citing it in addition to Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for her series, which follows the struggles of online personality Tallulah and close companion who is also aspiring agent Sennott’s character. Notably, the most significant presence on creative vision went to Entourage, that HBO sitcom about an up-and-coming celebrity making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it amid lockdown, became “hooked”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The idea for the series originated—in part—from firsthand, at first difficult, relocation to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a popular occurrence for followers. It was an era that included her understand some big life lessons, in her career 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 was almost like these biblical tests …”

Early Beginnings

Raised in New England, the star began creating and acting stand-up while pursuing theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

Sennott decided to act independently, performing at amateur nights with Edebiri and posting hysterical (and very) unconventional comedy videos on the internet. One, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically fixated on motherhood; another envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she met Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her journey, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, instead of the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, continuing amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who questioned regarding her then will surely be kicking themselves today. In what she labels a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has created the perfect project. In 2019 she posted a video named on LA life online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a show about LA residents balancing advantages of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being labeled as being a intoxicated criminal, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). It would be easy to create a series about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. I Love LA does neither, making for a depiction of privileged young adult living that’s candid about the chaos and the appeal.

Empathetic Approach

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