The performer appears on the digital interview and immediately starts an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing truly remorseful. Despite being only a bit late, she feels compelled to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, for a writer, this is precisely what is ideal to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty expected. Those familiar with her fearlessly openly gay and brash film titled Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in together with collaborator the talented actress—can already know that she has plenty to discuss, ranging from about roles, sex, or the merits of forming a high-school combat group. Plus, after watching the new eight-part HBO series I Love LA, viewers realize that she has further perspectives regarding the challenges of young adulthood (As a millennial, she serves as a relatable figure for this generation, straddling eras skilled for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, referencing it together with the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as influences for her series, which details the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and ally and new agent portrayed by Sennott. However, the most significant influence on concept went to the popular sitcom, the show about an emerging Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt entertainment industry (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it amid lockdown, became “hooked”, and decided to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The inspiration for I Love LA came—partly—from personal, originally rocky, relocation to LA and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about event for enthusiasts. It was a phase that saw her learn major life lessons, in her career and individually. “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 …”
Starting Out
Brought up in the East Coast, the star started creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, appearing at open mics with Ayo and uploading hilarious (and very) unconventional comedy videos online. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed several females obsessively fixated on motherhood; a different one envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a scary movie. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her path, she says, has been peers giving her a shot, rather than traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, continuing with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical regarding Sennott then will certainly be kicking themselves now. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” story, she seems to have created an ideal role. Previously she uploaded content titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she parodied movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers juggling benefits of digital stardom (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your friend being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). It would be easy to create a program about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. This show steers clear of each, resulting in a representation of advantaged millennial existence that’s honest about the mess and the glamour.
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 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
