Rachel Sennott appears on the online meeting and immediately starts an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, sounding truly remorseful. Although she's only a couple of minutes late, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s just what one hopes to encounter. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those familiar with the fearlessly openly gay and outspoken project titled Bottoms—that she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—would be aware that she holds much to discuss, whether on gender, relationships, or the merits of starting a youth combat group. Furthermore, after watching her new eight-part program titled I Love LA, it is clear that she carries additional perspectives regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott is an honorary member to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for bridging both generations).
Influences and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, referencing the show alongside the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as guides for I Love LA, which tracks the struggles of online personality Tallulah and her friend and new representative Sennott’s character. However, the biggest spot on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom about an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in a corrupt Hollywood (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it amid lockdown, became “hooked”, and decided to create a new version 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—to some extent—from firsthand, at first fractious, relocation to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a frequently discussed phenomenon for astrology heads. This represented a time that saw her understand significant truths, work-wise and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott began creating and acting stand-up while studying performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” 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. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She seized control, performing at live shows with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and distinctly) bizarre comedy videos online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed characters obsessively fixated on motherhood; a different one portrayed working at the brand Hollister as like being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her career, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, rather than the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Anyone who were skeptical about Sennott earlier will certainly be feeling foolish today. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” story, she seems to have achieved her dream vehicle. In 2019 she posted a video called “it’s LA” on social media, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a comedy about city dwellers managing benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being suspected of being a intoxicated stealer, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). It would be easy to make a program about online fame that was horribly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that belittled at its subjects. I Love LA steers clear of each, making for a depiction of affluent twentysomething existence that’s frank about the chaos and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“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
