Rachel Sennott appears on the online meeting and at once launches into an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely remorseful. Although she's only a bit delayed, she needs to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s just what is ideal to hear. Besides, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those who have seen the fearlessly LGBTQ+ and outspoken film titled Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with the director and starred in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—can understand that she has plenty to share, whether about roles, relationships, or the appeal of starting a high-school fight club. Plus, after watching her latest multi-episode program titled I Love LA, it is clear that she holds even more perspectives on the struggles of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott represents an honorary member of the gang, on the cusp skilled for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges a fan, naming it alongside the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as inspirations for I Love LA, which follows the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and aspiring talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the biggest influence on concept went to Entourage, that HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star making his way in a gritty entertainment industry (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose to put her own twist 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 I Love LA came—partly—from her own, initially difficult, move to LA and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. This represented an era that included her understand major insights, professionally and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “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
Raised in Connecticut, the star began writing and performing stand-up while enrolled in theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and distinctly) weird comedy videos digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely obsessed with pregnancy; another imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a religious event with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her career, she explains, has been peers supporting her, instead of established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she confirms, adding with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who had doubts about Sennott then will surely be feeling foolish today. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she seems to have manifested her dream vehicle. In 2019 she shared a video named about Los Angeles on social media, in which she mocked film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about city dwellers balancing benefits of online celebrity (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a intoxicated criminal, and possibly becoming a unreliable persona non grata). It would be tempting to make a program about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a depiction of advantaged millennial living that’s candid about the chaos and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“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