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Rachel Sennott enters the video call and at once starts an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, appearing truly regretful. She is only a bit delayed, she needs to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, in this context, this is just what is ideal to experience. Besides, it’s quite unsurprising. Those who know the boldly openly gay and outspoken project Bottoms—that she penned with Emma Seligman and starred in alongside her friend The Bear’s standout—can understand that she has much to share, be it on gender, intimacy, or the appeal of creating a teen combat group. And, after watching her latest eight-part program I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries additional thoughts about the challenges of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott serves as a relatable figure to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial skilled for straddling both generations).

Influences and Creative Vision

Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott is a fan, naming it together with the HBO hit, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as influences for I Love LA, which details the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also fledgling representative portrayed by Sennott. However, the biggest influence on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, that show about a rising Hollywood star making his way in an often-seedy Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose to put her own twist 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 says. The idea for this project emerged—partly—from her own, originally rocky, transition to LA and from her saturn return, a popular event for astrology heads. This represented a phase that included her grasp some big truths, work-wise and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” 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…”

Humble Origins

Raised in New England, Sennott began writing and performing stand-up while studying acting at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with her friend and posting hysterical (and distinctly) unconventional online content on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women fetishistically drawn to pregnancy; another portrayed working at a trendy retail outlet as like being caught in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and eventually starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her journey, she says, has been people her own age supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, stating with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”

Career Breakthrough

Individuals who questioned regarding Sennott previously will likely be feeling foolish today. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have created her dream vehicle. A few years back she posted content called on LA life on social media, in which she lampooned film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a series about LA residents balancing advantages of internet fame (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and perhaps becoming a risky pariah). Some could tempting to produce a show about online fame that was extremely idealized—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at those depicted. The series does neither, making for a representation of privileged millennial living that’s frank about the chaos and the glamour.

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