🔗 Share this article

The star appears on the video call and at once starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding really remorseful. Although she's only a bit delayed, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, during an interview, this is precisely what one hopes to experience. Additionally, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone familiar with the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and brash project Bottoms—that she co-wrote with her creative partner and appeared in alongside collaborator the talented actress—can already know that she has plenty to say, whether about identity, intimacy, or the appeal of creating a high-school fight club. Furthermore, after watching the recent seasonal program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries additional perspectives about the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott serves as a bridge for this generation, straddling eras with a knack for bridging both generations).

Influences and Creative Vision

Likenesses to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress admits to being an admirer, citing it together with the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as guides for her series, which tracks the struggles of online personality Tallulah and her friend who is also fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. Notably, the biggest spot on the moodboard went to the HBO series, the show focusing on an up-and-coming A-list actor navigating in a corrupt Hollywood (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it during the pandemic, became “hooked”, and decided to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The idea for I Love LA came—in part—from her own, initially difficult, move to LA and from her astrological phase, a popular event for followers. It was a phase that saw her understand major insights, in her career and individually. “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. It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Starting Out

Growing up in the East Coast, Sennott began 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 explains. “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. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

Sennott decided to act independently, performing at live shows with her friend and sharing uproarious (and very) weird skits digitally. One, Baby Cult, centered on several females fetishistically obsessed with having babies; another imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being stuck in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she met Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a religious event with hints of the intense thriller. The central motif of her journey, she notes, has been peers giving her a shot, instead of the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”

Career Breakthrough

Those who were skeptical regarding Sennott then will surely be kicking themselves now. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” development, she appears to created an ideal role. Previously she uploaded content titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she mocked movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a comedy about city dwellers juggling advantages of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being accused of being a intoxicated criminal, and possibly becoming a unreliable persona non grata). It would be easy to produce a show about online fame that was horribly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA does neither, creating a representation of advantaged millennial life that’s honest about the mess and the shine.

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