The performer appears on the online meeting and right away launches into an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing really remorseful. Although she's only a bit behind, she needs to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s precisely what one hopes to experience. Besides, it’s quite unsurprising. Anyone who have seen the boldly queer and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with her creative partner and starred in together with close companion Ayo Edebiri—would be aware that Sennott has much to say, whether on identity, intimacy, or the appeal of forming a youth fight club. And, after watching the new multi-episode program I Love LA, viewers realize that she holds additional perspectives regarding the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she serves as an honorary member for this generation, straddling eras skilled for connecting different age groups).
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and the actress admits to being an admirer, naming the show together with the classic series, Insecure and the innovative program as influences for the project, which tracks the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. However, the biggest spot on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom focusing on an up-and-coming Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy LA scene (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it amid the pandemic, became “captivated”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The idea for the series emerged—to some extent—from personal, initially rocky, transition to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a popular event for followers. This represented a phase that saw her understand major truths, work-wise and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Raised in the East Coast, the star started developing and showcasing humor while enrolled in acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with Ayo and uploading hilarious (and decidedly) unconventional comedy videos digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters obsessively fixated on pregnancy; a different one portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being caught in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she met Emma through campus film circles and ended up appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a Jewish wake with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, adding amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Anyone who were skeptical about her earlier will likely be kicking themselves currently. Through she labels a “incredibly circular” development, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. In 2019 she shared content named “it’s LA” online, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about city dwellers balancing benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your friend being accused of being a intoxicated criminal, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). Some could simple to produce a series about internet celebrity that was horribly idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA steers clear of each, resulting in a portrait of affluent twentysomething existence that’s frank about the mess and the appeal.
“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
A digital strategist with over a decade of experience in tech consulting and content creation, passionate about simplifying complex topics.
