🔗 Share this article

Rachel Sennott enters the video call and immediately launches into an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, appearing really remorseful. She is only a bit late, she needs to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is exactly what you want to experience. Moreover, it’s pretty predictable. Viewers familiar with her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and brash film titled Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with her creative partner and appeared in alongside close companion Ayo Edebiri—would understand that Sennott holds plenty to say, be it about gender, relationships, or the pros of forming a youth fight club. Plus, after watching her recent multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries further perspectives about the challenges of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she is a relatable figure for this generation, straddling eras adept for straddling millennials and Gen Z).

Inspirations and Creative Vision

Likenesses to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress is an admirer, naming the show together with Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which follows the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the most significant influence on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, the program depicting a rising A-list actor navigating in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it during the pandemic, became “hooked”, and resolved 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 explains. The idea for I Love LA originated—partly—from personal, originally rocky, relocation to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about occurrence for enthusiasts. This represented an era that saw her learn significant life lessons, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Starting Out

Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced developing and showcasing comedy while pursuing acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. 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 took matters into her own hands, appearing at live shows with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and decidedly) weird skits online. One, Baby Cult, centered on several females fetishistically drawn to having babies; a different one envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being caught in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately appearing in her first film, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a Jewish wake with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her path, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, rather than traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Career Breakthrough

Anyone who questioned about Sennott then will certainly be feeling foolish now. Through she labels a “wild, full-circle” story, she appears to manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she shared a video called on LA life on the internet, in which she mocked film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a show about city dwellers juggling benefits of online celebrity (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being suspected of being a intoxicated criminal, and possibly becoming a risky outcast). Some could tempting to create a show about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that punched down at its subjects. I Love LA does neither, creating a depiction of affluent twentysomething life that’s frank 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