Rachel Sennott joins the video call and right away starts an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding really remorseful. She is only slightly late, she wants to justify. “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!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is precisely what is ideal to experience. Additionally, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers who have seen her fearlessly openly gay and outspoken film Bottoms—which she co-wrote with her creative partner and starred in alongside her friend The Bear’s standout—would already know that she possesses much to share, ranging from about roles, intimacy, or the pros of creating a teen combat group. And, by the end the new multi-episode program I Love LA, it is clear that she has even more thoughts about the darker side of modern youth (As a millennial, she serves as a relatable figure to younger audiences, straddling eras adept for straddling both generations).
Influences and Artistic Direction
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being an admirer, citing the show together with Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as guides for the project, which tracks the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also aspiring representative Sennott’s character. Notably, the biggest presence on creative vision was reserved for Entourage, that HBO sitcom focusing on an up-and-coming A-list actor succeeding in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it throughout lockdown, became “hooked”, and resolved to put her own twist 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 concept for I Love LA came—partly—from her own, at first difficult, relocation to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a frequently discussed occurrence for enthusiasts. That period marked an era that saw her grasp significant truths, in her career and personally. “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 was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Growing up in the East Coast, Sennott began writing and performing comedy while studying performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “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, appearing at open mics with Ayo and posting uproarious (and very) bizarre online content on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters intensely obsessed with motherhood; a different one envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her journey, she says, has been peers supporting her, instead of established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she repeats, stating humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts regarding Sennott then will likely be regretting it currently. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she appears to achieved an ideal role. A few years back she shared a video titled on LA life on the internet, in which she parodied movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a series about LA residents managing benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). It would be easy to make a show about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. This show avoids both, resulting in a depiction of privileged young adult living that’s honest about the chaos 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 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
