🔗 Share this article

The star joins the digital interview and right away starts an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, seeming genuinely apologetic. She is only a bit behind, she needs to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, during an interview, that’s just what is ideal to hear. Moreover, it’s pretty expected. Those who have seen the boldly openly gay and brash film Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with the director and appeared in alongside collaborator the talented actress—would understand that Sennott has much to share, ranging from on gender, sex, or the pros of starting a high-school brawl society. Plus, after watching her recent eight-part HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that the star has further thoughts regarding the challenges of modern youth (As a millennial, she represents a bridge of the gang, on the cusp with a knack for bridging different age groups).

Influences and Artistic Direction

Parallels to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges a fan, citing the show alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as inspirations for her series, which follows the travails of online personality Tallulah and ally who is also aspiring talent manager Sennott’s character. Notably, the biggest spot on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, that program about an emerging celebrity making his way in a corrupt LA scene (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it throughout lockdown, became “hooked”, and chose to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The idea for this project originated—to some extent—from her own, originally rocky, relocation to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about event for enthusiasts. It was a time that involved her grasp some big life lessons, work-wise and in private life. “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.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Humble Origins

Growing up in New England, Sennott began developing and showcasing stand-up while studying acting at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. 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?”

Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with Edebiri and uploading hilarious (and distinctly) bizarre online content digitally. One, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely drawn to pregnancy; a different one portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being caught in a scary movie. By chance, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a religious event with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her path, she notes, has been peers giving her a shot, rather than traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, stating amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”

Rising Success

Those who questioned regarding her then will certainly be kicking themselves today. As part of she calls a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she has achieved her dream vehicle. A few years back she posted a video titled on LA life on the internet, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about city dwellers balancing the perks of online celebrity (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a unreliable outcast). It would be easy to make a program about online fame that was overly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, resulting in a depiction of privileged millennial life that’s frank about the mess and the glamour.

Balanced Perspective

“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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