Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and right away starts an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, seeming really regretful. She is only a couple of minutes behind, she feels compelled to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, in this context, this is precisely what one hopes to experience. Moreover, it’s quite unsurprising. Viewers who have seen the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and starred in with close companion The Bear’s standout—can be aware that Sennott has a lot to say, be it about identity, sex, or the merits of starting a teen fight club. And, after watching her latest seasonal show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has additional insights on the struggles of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as an honorary member for this generation, on the cusp adept for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott is a fan, citing it together with the classic series, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as influences for I Love LA, which follows the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and new agent Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the biggest presence on the moodboard was reserved for the HBO series, the program focusing on a rising celebrity navigating in an often-seedy LA scene (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it amid COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and resolved to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The idea for I Love LA originated—to some extent—from firsthand, initially fractious, move to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a popular occurrence for followers. That period marked a time that saw her grasp major truths, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Raised in Connecticut, the star started developing and showcasing humor 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 states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, performing at open mics with Ayo and posting uproarious (and very) unconventional comedy videos digitally. One, Baby Cult, centered on several females obsessively fixated on motherhood; another envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being trapped in a thriller. Interestingly, she met Emma through campus film circles and eventually featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her career, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, continuing humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who questioned regarding her then will surely be regretting it today. Through she calls a “wild, full-circle” story, she seems to have manifested the perfect project. Previously she posted a video titled on LA life on social media, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a comedy about LA residents balancing the perks of digital stardom (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your friend being accused of being a intoxicated thief, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). Some could tempting to create a show about digital influence that was overly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at the characters. The series steers clear of each, creating a depiction of advantaged twentysomething living that’s candid about the grot and the appeal.
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 says. “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
