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Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and immediately launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, appearing truly remorseful. She is only a bit late, she wants to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, in this context, this is precisely what is ideal to experience. Additionally, it’s pretty predictable. Anyone who have seen her boldly openly gay and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—that she penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in together with her friend the talented actress—can already know that Sennott possesses much to discuss, be it on gender, relationships, or the appeal of starting a high-school combat group. And, after watching the recent multi-episode program I Love LA, viewers realize that she has even more thoughts about the darker side of young adulthood (As a millennial, she represents an honorary member to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).

Influences and Creative Vision

The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and Sennott readily acknowledges a fan, referencing it alongside the classic series, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also fledgling talent manager portrayed by Sennott. However, the largest spot on concept went to the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom about a rising Hollywood star succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The concept for the series emerged—in part—from personal, originally fractious, relocation to LA and from the cosmic event, a popular occurrence for followers. This represented a time that involved her grasp major insights, in her career and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “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

Raised in the East Coast, the star started creating and acting comedy while pursuing theatre at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” 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. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

She decided to act independently, appearing at live shows with Ayo and uploading uproarious (and distinctly) bizarre online content online. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women fetishistically drawn to pregnancy; another envisioned working at the brand Hollister as akin to being trapped in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her path, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, continuing humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Rising Success

Individuals who had doubts about her earlier will certainly be regretting it today. Through she labels a “astonishingly complete” development, she seems to have achieved the perfect project. In 2019 she shared a clip called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she mocked movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a comedy about Angelenos managing the perks of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a unreliable persona non grata). It would be easy to make a series about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that belittled at its subjects. This show steers clear of each, creating a portrait of privileged millennial life that’s candid about the grot and the appeal.

Nuanced Portrayal

“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