🔗 Share this article

The star enters the online meeting and at once launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, sounding truly apologetic. Despite being only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s exactly what you want to hear. Besides, it’s quite expected. Viewers who have seen the boldly LGBTQ+ and brash project titled Bottoms—which she co-wrote with the director and featured in together with close companion Ayo Edebiri—will understand that she possesses plenty to share, whether on identity, intimacy, or the appeal of creating a high-school combat group. And, after watching her latest multi-episode program I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star holds even more thoughts regarding the struggles of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she is a bridge to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).

Influences and Storytelling Approach

The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott is enthusiastic, referencing the show alongside the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as guides for I Love LA, which details the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also aspiring representative Maia. Perhaps, the largest influence on the moodboard went to the HBO series, the HBO sitcom about an emerging Hollywood star succeeding in a corrupt Hollywood (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and decided 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 says. The idea for I Love LA came—to some extent—from her own, initially rocky, move to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed event for enthusiasts. This represented a time that saw her understand major life lessons, work-wise and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Starting Out

Growing up in the East Coast, the star began writing and performing stand-up while enrolled in acting at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at open mics with Edebiri and posting hysterical (and decidedly) bizarre online content digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely fixated on pregnancy; a different one envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being caught in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a religious event with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she says, has been peers offering opportunities, as opposed to the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, adding humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”

Career Breakthrough

Anyone who questioned regarding Sennott earlier will likely be feeling foolish now. As part of she labels a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she appears to created an ideal role. A few years back she shared a clip called “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers balancing advantages of internet fame (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your friend being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). It would be tempting to create a program about digital influence that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at those depicted. The series avoids both, resulting in a portrait of affluent twentysomething existence that’s honest about the grot and the shine.

Empathetic Approach

“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