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Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and immediately starts an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely remorseful. Despite being only a bit delayed, 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!” Fortunately, during an interview, this is exactly what is ideal to hear. Besides, it’s quite predictable. Viewers who know the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken film titled Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with the director and appeared in alongside her friend The Bear’s standout—will already know that she holds much to say, whether about gender, intimacy, or the pros of creating a high-school brawl society. Furthermore, after watching her new multi-episode program titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds further perspectives regarding the darker side of modern youth (At 30, she represents an honorary member for this generation, a tale-end millennial adept for straddling different age groups).

Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction

Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is an admirer, naming the show alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as influences for her series, which details the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and her friend who is also aspiring representative Sennott’s character. However, the biggest influence on concept belonged to Entourage, that program about an emerging celebrity succeeding in a gritty LA scene (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it during lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The idea for the series emerged—in part—from personal, at first difficult, relocation to LA and from the astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. It was an era that involved her learn major truths, professionally and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “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

Brought up in New England, Sennott began developing and showcasing stand-up while studying theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

She decided to act independently, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and uploading uproarious (and decidedly) weird online content on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively fixated on having babies; a different one envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being caught in a scary movie. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and ended up starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a funeral gathering with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she says, has been people her own age offering opportunities, as opposed to traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Individuals who had doubts about her then will surely be regretting it today. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she appears to created the perfect project. A few years back she shared content named on LA life online, in which she mocked film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a series about LA residents managing advantages of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a substance-abusing stealer, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could easy to produce a program about internet celebrity that was overly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that punched down at those depicted. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a portrait of affluent millennial life that’s honest about the grot and the shine.

Balanced Perspective

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