Rachel Sennott on her side-splitting show depicting that grotty allure of today's youth life

The performer enters the video call and at once begins an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, seeming truly apologetic. She is only a bit behind, she needs to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, for a writer, this is exactly what is ideal to experience. Moreover, it’s quite predictable. Anyone who know the fearlessly openly gay and brash project titled Bottoms—that she co-wrote with the director and starred in alongside collaborator the talented actress—can understand that Sennott holds much to say, whether on gender, sex, or the pros of creating a teen combat group. Furthermore, once you finish her recent eight-part program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she has even more insights about the struggles of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott serves as a bridge of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for connecting both generations).

Guiding Lights and Creative Vision

Likenesses to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott is an admirer, referencing it in addition to Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for her series, which tracks the journey of a social media star Tallulah and her friend and fledgling representative portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the largest presence on the moodboard was reserved for Entourage, that HBO sitcom focusing on an emerging Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She began viewing it amid the pandemic, became “hooked”, 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 emerged—to some extent—from firsthand, originally difficult, relocation to LA and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about occurrence for enthusiasts. That period marked an era that saw her learn major truths, in her career and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Humble Origins

Raised in New England, the star commenced creating and acting comedy while enrolled in theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “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 decided to act independently, performing at open mics with her friend and uploading uproarious (and very) weird skits online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women intensely drawn to having babies; a different one imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as like being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a religious event with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her journey, she notes, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, continuing amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Those who questioned regarding Sennott then will certainly be kicking themselves currently. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she seems to have created an ideal role. In 2019 she shared a video titled about Los Angeles on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents managing the perks of online celebrity (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your friend being accused of being a substance-abusing stealer, and possibly becoming a unreliable outcast). One might easy to make a program about digital influence that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. I Love LA avoids both, creating a portrait of privileged young adult life that’s candid about the mess and the shine.

Nuanced Portrayal

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