The performer enters the digital interview and immediately launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, seeming truly regretful. Although she's only slightly behind, she feels compelled to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s just what one hopes to experience. Additionally, it’s quite unsurprising. Anyone familiar with the fearlessly queer and outspoken film titled Bottoms—which she co-wrote with the director and featured in alongside her friend the talented actress—would understand that Sennott possesses plenty to discuss, ranging from about gender, intimacy, or the merits of creating a teen brawl society. Furthermore, after watching her latest eight-part show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star holds further thoughts on the challenges of modern youth (As a millennial, she is an honorary member for this generation, on the cusp adept for straddling different age groups).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress readily acknowledges enthusiastic, referencing the show alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as influences for her series, which tracks the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and fledgling representative Maia. Perhaps, the most significant presence on concept was reserved for Entourage, that program focusing on a rising A-list actor succeeding in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it amid lockdown, became “captivated”, and decided to create a new version 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 explains. The inspiration for I Love LA emerged—in part—from firsthand, originally fractious, move to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a frequently discussed event for astrology heads. That period marked an era that saw her understand major insights, work-wise and individually. “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. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Growing up in the East Coast, Sennott commenced creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, appearing at open mics with Ayo and uploading uproarious (and very) bizarre online content digitally. One, Baby Cult, followed characters fetishistically obsessed with pregnancy; a different one imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being stuck in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she notes, 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 with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Individuals who had doubts regarding her then will certainly be feeling foolish currently. In what she labels a “wild, full-circle” story, she has manifested her dream vehicle. Previously she shared a clip titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she lampooned film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a series about city dwellers managing benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your client being accused of being a intoxicated criminal, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). It would be simple to produce a program about internet celebrity that was overly aspirational—or, worse, one that punched down at the characters. This show avoids both, resulting in a portrait of privileged young adult existence that’s honest about the mess and the appeal.
Nuanced Portrayal
“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
