Rachel Sennott enters the video call and immediately begins an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, sounding truly apologetic. She is only a couple of minutes late, she needs to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s just what one hopes to hear. Moreover, it’s quite unsurprising. Viewers who know the boldly LGBTQ+ and brash project titled Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with her creative partner and featured in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that Sennott has plenty to say, be it about gender, relationships, or the pros of forming a teen fight club. And, after watching her latest eight-part program I Love LA, viewers realize that the star carries even more insights on the challenges of modern youth (As a millennial, she is an honorary member of the gang, a tale-end millennial skilled for bridging different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being an admirer, naming it alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for I Love LA, which details the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also aspiring agent Sennott’s character. Notably, the largest influence on concept went to the HBO series, that HBO sitcom depicting a rising Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided to add a fresh perspective 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 explains. The concept for I Love LA emerged—partly—from her own, initially rocky, move to LA and from her saturn return, a popular occurrence for astrology heads. It was a phase that involved her grasp significant truths, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Early Beginnings
Raised in Connecticut, the star started creating and acting comedy while studying acting at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, appearing at live shows with Ayo and posting uproarious (and very) bizarre skits on the internet. One, Baby Cult, depicted several females intensely fixated on pregnancy; another imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who questioned regarding Sennott then will surely be kicking themselves today. As part of she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she seems to have manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she posted a clip titled on LA life on the internet, in which she mocked film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a comedy about Angelenos balancing the perks of online celebrity (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being accused of being a substance-abusing criminal, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). One might simple to produce a show about internet celebrity that was extremely aspirational—or, worse, one that punched down at the characters. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a portrait of affluent young adult life that’s honest about the mess and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
