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Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and right away launches into an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming truly regretful. She is only a bit late, she feels compelled to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s precisely what you want to hear. Additionally, it’s quite predictable. Viewers who have seen her fearlessly queer and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—that she penned with the director and featured in together with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—would already know that Sennott possesses plenty to share, be it about roles, intimacy, or the pros of forming a high-school fight club. Furthermore, by the end her recent eight-part program I Love LA, viewers realize that she holds further thoughts regarding the challenges of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott represents a relatable figure for this generation, a tale-end millennial with a knack for connecting different age groups).

Influences and Storytelling Approach

Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, referencing the show in addition to Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which tracks the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and aspiring agent Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the largest presence on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, the show about a rising A-list actor succeeding in an often-seedy LA scene (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it during COVID-19, became “captivated”, 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 explains. The concept for I Love LA came—partly—from her own, originally fractious, transition to Los Angeles and from her cosmic event, a frequently discussed phenomenon for followers. This represented an era that saw her understand some big insights, professionally and individually. “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 …”

Humble Origins

Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott started developing and showcasing comedy while enrolled in performance at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with Ayo and sharing hilarious (and very) bizarre skits on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters fetishistically obsessed with having babies; another imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a religious event with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her journey, she notes, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, rather than traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, stating with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Those who were skeptical regarding Sennott previously will surely be regretting it currently. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she appears to manifested an ideal role. Previously she posted a clip titled “it’s LA” on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a series about Angelenos balancing the perks of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). One might simple to create a program about online fame that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. The series does neither, making for a representation of affluent millennial living that’s honest about the grot and the appeal.

Balanced Perspective

“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