The performer enters the online meeting and immediately launches into an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, appearing really remorseful. Although she's only a bit delayed, she feels compelled to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s just what you want to experience. Besides, it’s quite expected. Viewers who have seen the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—that she co-wrote with her creative partner and appeared in together with collaborator The Bear’s standout—can already know that she holds a lot to discuss, whether on identity, relationships, or the pros of forming a high-school combat group. Plus, once you finish the new eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries additional insights regarding the challenges of modern youth (As a millennial, Sennott represents an honorary member of the gang, a tale-end millennial skilled for straddling both generations).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being an admirer, naming the show alongside the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and ally who is also fledgling agent Maia. Notably, the most significant presence on the moodboard was reserved for the HBO series, the program about an emerging celebrity succeeding in an often-seedy Hollywood (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it during COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and resolved to create a new version 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 explains. The idea for the series originated—partly—from firsthand, initially difficult, transition to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for followers. That period marked a phase that saw her learn some big truths, 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. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in the East Coast, Sennott commenced creating and acting humor while pursuing acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She seized control, taking the stage at open mics with Edebiri and posting uproarious (and distinctly) weird online content digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted several females obsessively fixated on motherhood; another imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and eventually featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her career, she explains, has been people her own age supporting her, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she repeats, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who questioned regarding her earlier will surely be feeling foolish today. Through she calls a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have created an ideal role. A few years back she posted a clip titled on LA life online, in which she mocked movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a show about city dwellers managing the perks of online celebrity (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your friend being labeled as being a substance-abusing thief, and possibly becoming a unreliable persona non grata). One might easy to create a program about internet celebrity that was overly aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at the characters. The series avoids both, creating a depiction of privileged young adult living that’s candid about the mess and the appeal.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” she comments. “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
