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Rachel Sennott joins the video call and at once starts an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding truly remorseful. Although she's only a couple of minutes late, she wants to explain. “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 is ideal to hear. Additionally, it’s quite expected. Those who know the boldly openly gay and brash project titled Bottoms—which Sennott penned with the director and appeared in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—can already know that she holds much to say, ranging from on identity, sex, or the appeal of starting a youth fight club. Furthermore, after watching her new eight-part show I Love LA, it is clear that she has even more perspectives about the struggles of modern youth (At 30, she is an honorary member to younger audiences, on the cusp adept for straddling millennials and Gen Z).

Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction

Likenesses to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, referencing the show together with the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as influences for I Love LA, which follows the struggles of online personality Tallulah and close companion and aspiring representative Sennott’s character. However, the largest influence on the moodboard went to the HBO series, the show focusing on a rising Hollywood star making his way in a gritty Hollywood (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The inspiration for the series emerged—in part—from firsthand, at first difficult, transition to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a frequently discussed phenomenon for enthusiasts. That period marked a time that included her learn some big life lessons, in her career and personally. “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

Growing up in New England, the star began creating and acting humor while studying performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

She decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and sharing uproarious (and distinctly) bizarre skits online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed characters intensely obsessed with pregnancy; a different one imagined working at the brand Hollister as akin to being trapped in a scary movie. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up appearing in her first film, Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a religious event with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her path, she explains, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, instead of the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she confirms, stating with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”

Manifesting Dreams

Those who had doubts about Sennott previously will likely be feeling foolish currently. Through she describes as a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she appears to created an ideal role. Previously she uploaded a clip named on LA life on the internet, in which she lampooned movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a show about city dwellers balancing advantages of internet fame (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). Some could simple to produce a series about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, making for a depiction of advantaged millennial life that’s frank about the chaos and the appeal.

Nuanced Portrayal

“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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