🔗 Share this article

The performer joins the video call and at once starts an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding really apologetic. She is only a bit late, she needs to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, in this context, this is precisely what you want to hear. Additionally, it’s fairly predictable. Viewers who know the boldly queer and brash movie Bottoms—that she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside close companion The Bear’s standout—can be aware that Sennott possesses plenty to discuss, ranging from about roles, relationships, or the appeal of starting a youth brawl society. Furthermore, once you finish the recent multi-episode show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star carries even more insights about the struggles of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she represents a relatable figure of the gang, straddling eras adept for connecting different age groups).

Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction

Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being an admirer, citing the show alongside the HBO hit, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as influences for I Love LA, which details the journey of online personality Tallulah and close companion and aspiring agent Maia. However, the biggest spot on concept was reserved for the HBO series, the program about a rising A-list actor navigating in a corrupt entertainment industry (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it throughout COVID-19, became “captivated”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The inspiration for the series originated—in part—from her own, at first difficult, move to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a frequently discussed occurrence for astrology heads. That period marked a time that involved her learn significant truths, professionally and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Early Beginnings

Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott commenced writing and performing comedy while studying performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

She decided to act independently, performing at amateur nights with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and very) unconventional online content on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters fetishistically obsessed with motherhood; a different one imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being caught in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a religious event with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her path, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”

Career Breakthrough

Anyone who were skeptical about her then will surely be kicking themselves now. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” development, she seems to have manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she shared a video titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she parodied movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers managing benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your associate being labeled as being a drug-addled criminal, and possibly becoming a risky outcast). It would be tempting to create a series about digital influence that was overly glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. This show does neither, creating a depiction of advantaged twentysomething living that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.

Nuanced Portrayal

“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