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Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and at once starts an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, appearing genuinely remorseful. Despite being only a couple of minutes late, she needs to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s exactly what one hopes to hear. Moreover, it’s quite predictable. Anyone who have seen the boldly openly gay and brash movie titled Bottoms—that she co-wrote with her creative partner and appeared in together with her friend The Bear’s standout—can understand that she has plenty to say, be it on identity, relationships, or the pros of forming a teen fight club. Plus, once you finish the latest eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she has additional perspectives regarding the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she serves as a relatable figure for this generation, straddling eras with a knack for straddling both generations).

Inspirations and Storytelling Approach

Parallels to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress is an admirer, citing the show in addition to the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as inspirations for I Love LA, which details the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and new representative Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the most significant influence on concept belonged to the HBO series, the program depicting a rising celebrity succeeding in a corrupt Hollywood (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it amid lockdown, became “hooked”, and chose to add a fresh perspective 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 concept for I Love LA came—in part—from personal, at first rocky, move to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a popular occurrence for enthusiasts. It was a phase that included her learn major truths, professionally 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 …”

Humble Origins

Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced writing and performing humor while enrolled in acting at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

She decided to act independently, performing at amateur nights with her friend and sharing hysterical (and distinctly) bizarre online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed characters obsessively drawn to having babies; another envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as like being caught in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her career, she notes, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”

Rising Success

Those who had doubts regarding Sennott earlier will certainly be feeling foolish now. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” development, she appears to manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she posted a clip named “it’s LA” online, in which she mocked movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a comedy about LA residents managing advantages of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being accused of being a substance-abusing criminal, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). One might simple to make a program about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at the characters. This show steers clear of each, making for a portrait of advantaged millennial life that’s honest about the grot and the appeal.

Balanced Perspective

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