Rachel Sennott joins the video call and right away starts an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, sounding really remorseful. Although she's only a bit late, she feels compelled to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, during an interview, that’s exactly what is ideal to hear. Besides, it’s quite unsurprising. Those familiar with the fearlessly queer and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—that she penned with the director and featured in with close companion The Bear’s standout—will understand that Sennott possesses a lot to share, whether on gender, intimacy, or the appeal of creating a youth brawl society. Plus, after watching the latest seasonal program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has further perspectives regarding the challenges of modern youth (At 30, she serves as a bridge of the gang, straddling eras skilled for straddling different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, citing the show in addition to the HBO hit, Insecure and Atlanta as inspirations for her series, which tracks the struggles of online personality Tallulah and close companion who is also aspiring representative Maia. Notably, the largest presence on creative vision went to the HBO series, that show depicting a rising celebrity making his way in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it during lockdown, became “hooked”, and decided to put her own twist 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 says. The concept for I Love LA came—partly—from personal, initially difficult, relocation to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a popular event for enthusiasts. It was an era that saw her grasp significant life lessons, in her career and in private life. “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
Raised in Connecticut, the star began developing and showcasing stand-up while pursuing performance 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.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with Ayo and posting uproarious (and decidedly) bizarre online content on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed several females obsessively obsessed with having babies; another imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as like being caught in a thriller. By chance, she met Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she says, has been peers supporting her, instead of established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, adding humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who had doubts about Sennott earlier will certainly be feeling foolish currently. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” development, she has achieved the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded content titled on LA life on social media, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about Angelenos juggling benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). Some could simple to create a series about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, worse, one that belittled at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, creating a representation of privileged millennial existence that’s honest about the mess and the shine.
Balanced Perspective
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” she observes. “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
