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Rachel Sennott joins the video call and right away begins an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, seeming truly remorseful. Although she's only a bit late, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, during an interview, this is exactly what you want to experience. Besides, it’s quite unsurprising. Viewers familiar with the fearlessly queer and outspoken project Bottoms—which she co-wrote with the director and appeared in together with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—would already know that Sennott has much to discuss, be it about gender, sex, or the appeal of creating a teen brawl society. Furthermore, by the end her new seasonal show titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries further perspectives regarding the challenges of modern youth (As a millennial, she represents a relatable figure to younger audiences, straddling eras skilled for connecting millennials and Gen Z).

Inspirations and Creative Vision

The comparisons to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges a fan, referencing the show in addition to the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for I Love LA, which tracks the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and new talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the largest influence on concept belonged to Entourage, the HBO sitcom about a rising Hollywood star making his way in a gritty Hollywood (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it amid the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“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—in part—from firsthand, originally difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a frequently discussed occurrence for enthusiasts. That period marked a time that saw her learn some big truths, work-wise and personally. “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…”

Starting Out

Raised in Connecticut, the star started developing and showcasing comedy while pursuing performance at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

She decided to act independently, performing at amateur nights with her friend and uploading uproarious (and very) bizarre online content digitally. One, Baby Cult, centered on several females fetishistically fixated on pregnancy; another imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a scary movie. By chance, she met Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually starring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, instead of established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, adding with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Career Breakthrough

Individuals who had doubts about her previously will surely be kicking themselves today. Through she labels a “astonishingly complete” story, she has created an ideal role. Previously she shared a clip titled “it’s LA” on social media, in which she parodied film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers managing advantages of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being labeled as being a intoxicated criminal, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). Some could easy to produce a program about online fame that was horribly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at those depicted. The series does neither, making for a depiction of privileged young adult existence that’s frank about the chaos and the appeal.

Empathetic Approach

“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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