🔗 Share this article

Rachel Sennott appears on the online meeting and at once begins an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, seeming really regretful. Despite being only slightly late, she needs to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, in this context, that’s precisely what is ideal to encounter. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Viewers who have seen the fearlessly LGBTQ+ and brash film Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and featured in together with collaborator the talented actress—will already know that she has plenty to discuss, be it about identity, sex, or the pros of creating a teen fight club. And, after watching the recent seasonal program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has additional insights regarding the struggles of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she represents a bridge to younger audiences, on the cusp skilled for straddling millennials and Gen Z).

Guiding Lights and Creative Vision

Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and the actress is a fan, referencing the show together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as guides for I Love LA, which details the struggles of online personality Tallulah and her friend and new talent manager Maia. Notably, the largest spot on concept belonged to Entourage, the program about an up-and-coming celebrity succeeding in a corrupt LA scene (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The concept for the series emerged—partly—from personal, initially difficult, relocation to LA and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for followers. It was an era that saw her understand significant insights, work-wise and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Starting Out

Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott started developing and showcasing comedy while enrolled in acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

Sennott took matters into her own hands, appearing at open mics with her friend and sharing uproarious (and distinctly) unconventional comedy videos online. One, Baby Cult, depicted characters fetishistically drawn to having babies; a different one portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being stuck in a thriller. By chance, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and ultimately appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, instead of established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Rising Success

Anyone who questioned about Sennott then will surely be regretting it today. Through she labels a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she appears to achieved the perfect project. Previously she posted content called on LA life online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a series about city dwellers juggling advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being labeled as being a intoxicated thief, and potentially becoming a risky persona non grata). Some could tempting to produce a show about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at the characters. This show does neither, resulting in a representation of affluent young adult life that’s frank about the grot and the appeal.

Balanced Perspective

“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