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Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and immediately begins an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, appearing really remorseful. Although she's only a bit late, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s exactly what is ideal to experience. Moreover, it’s quite expected. Anyone who have seen the unapologetically openly gay and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with her creative partner and starred in with close companion Ayo Edebiri—would be aware that she holds much to say, ranging from about gender, intimacy, or the pros of starting a youth fight club. And, by the end the recent seasonal HBO series I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds additional thoughts about the darker side of modern youth (At 30, she represents an honorary member of the gang, on the cusp skilled for connecting different age groups).

Influences and Creative Vision

Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, naming it in addition to the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which details the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and new agent Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the largest spot on concept belonged to the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom about an up-and-coming Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt LA scene (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it throughout COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and decided to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The concept for this project emerged—in part—from firsthand, at first fractious, transition to LA and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. That period marked a phase that involved her understand some big insights, work-wise and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Starting Out

Raised in the East Coast, Sennott began developing and showcasing stand-up while studying performance at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at open mics with Edebiri and sharing uproarious (and decidedly) weird comedy videos online. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters intensely drawn to pregnancy; another imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being caught in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she met Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a Jewish wake with echoes of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her career, she explains, has been contemporaries supporting her, instead of traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she confirms, continuing amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who were skeptical regarding Sennott earlier will likely be feeling foolish today. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she uploaded a clip named on LA life on the internet, in which she lampooned film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a show about LA residents balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a substance-abusing thief, and possibly becoming a risky persona non grata). It would be tempting to make a show about digital influence that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, making for a depiction of privileged twentysomething existence that’s honest about the grot and the appeal.

Balanced Perspective

“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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