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Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and right away starts an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, seeming truly apologetic. Although she's only a couple of minutes delayed, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s exactly what is ideal to experience. Besides, it’s pretty expected. Viewers who know her fearlessly queer and brash movie titled Bottoms—which she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and starred in together with close companion The Bear’s standout—would be aware that she has plenty to say, ranging from about roles, intimacy, or the pros of forming a high-school combat group. And, by the end the new eight-part HBO series I Love LA, viewers realize that the star holds further insights on the struggles of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott serves as an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras skilled for bridging millennials and Gen Z).

Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction

Parallels to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, naming the show alongside the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for her series, which follows the journey of online personality Tallulah and close companion and new agent Maia. Perhaps, the largest presence on the moodboard belonged to the HBO series, the show about an emerging A-list actor succeeding in an often-seedy Hollywood (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it during COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The idea for this project emerged—in part—from firsthand, initially fractious, transition to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a frequently discussed phenomenon for enthusiasts. It was an era that saw her grasp some big insights, professionally and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Humble Origins

Brought up in New England, Sennott commenced writing and performing humor while enrolled in theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “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?”

Sennott seized control, taking the stage at live shows with her friend and posting hysterical (and very) unconventional online content online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters obsessively drawn to pregnancy; a different one envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being stuck in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and eventually featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her career, she notes, has been people her own age giving her a shot, instead of traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Rising Success

Those who were skeptical regarding Sennott earlier will surely be feeling foolish currently. As part of she labels a “wild, full-circle” development, she seems to have created the perfect project. Previously she shared a clip titled on LA life on the internet, in which she mocked movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents juggling benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your associate being suspected of being a substance-abusing thief, and possibly becoming a risky outcast). It would be easy to create a program about digital influence that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that punched down at its subjects. This show steers clear of each, creating a portrait of advantaged twentysomething existence that’s frank about the chaos and the glamour.

Empathetic Approach

“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