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Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and immediately starts an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, seeming really regretful. Although she's only a couple of minutes delayed, she feels compelled to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, in this context, this is exactly what one hopes to experience. Moreover, it’s pretty expected. Anyone who have seen her boldly LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and starred in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—would already know that she possesses plenty to discuss, be it on roles, relationships, or the appeal of forming a high-school combat group. Furthermore, by the end her new eight-part program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she has further thoughts on the challenges of young adulthood (At 30, she is a bridge for this generation, on the cusp with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).

Influences and Creative Vision

The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, referencing it in addition to the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as guides for her series, which tracks the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and aspiring representative Maia. Notably, the biggest spot on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, the show depicting a rising celebrity navigating in a gritty LA scene (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it during the pandemic, became “hooked”, and decided to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The inspiration for the series originated—to some extent—from her own, initially rocky, move to LA and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. This represented a phase that involved her understand significant insights, in her career and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Early Beginnings

Growing up in New England, Sennott started writing and performing comedy while enrolled in acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “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. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

She seized control, performing at live shows with Ayo and posting hysterical (and distinctly) weird online content digitally. One, Baby Cult, centered on characters obsessively drawn to having babies; a different one envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and eventually starring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she explains, has been people her own age offering opportunities, instead of established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she repeats, stating with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”

Manifesting Dreams

Individuals who were skeptical regarding her previously will likely be feeling foolish currently. Through she describes as a “astonishingly complete” development, she seems to have created the perfect project. A few years back she shared a clip titled “it’s LA” online, in which she parodied movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos managing advantages of internet fame (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your client being accused of being a intoxicated criminal, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). Some could tempting to create a program about online fame that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that punched down at those depicted. The series steers clear of each, creating a representation of advantaged millennial life that’s frank about the chaos and the glamour.

Empathetic Approach

“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