The actress and writer discussing her uproarious show about that messy glamour of today's youth life

The performer joins the digital interview and at once begins an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, sounding genuinely regretful. Although she's only a couple of minutes behind, she wants to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, during an interview, this is precisely what one hopes to encounter. Additionally, it’s fairly predictable. Viewers familiar with her boldly openly gay and unapologetically crass movie titled Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with the director and appeared in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that she holds plenty to share, be it about identity, sex, or the appeal of creating a high-school fight club. Furthermore, after watching her new multi-episode program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries further perspectives on the struggles of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as a relatable figure to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial adept for bridging different age groups).

Influences and Creative Vision

Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, naming it in addition to the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as influences for her series, which details the journey of a social media star Tallulah and her friend who is also aspiring representative portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the most significant influence on concept belonged to Entourage, the HBO sitcom depicting a rising Hollywood star navigating in a gritty Hollywood (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it throughout COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The concept for I Love LA came—in part—from personal, at first rocky, relocation to LA and from the astrological phase, a frequently discussed event for astrology heads. It was an era that included her understand some big life lessons, in her career and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Starting Out

Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott began writing and performing comedy while studying performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” 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. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

She took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at live shows with Edebiri and sharing hilarious (and decidedly) bizarre skits online. One, Baby Cult, depicted characters fetishistically obsessed with motherhood; another envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being trapped in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she notes, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, stating with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who were skeptical regarding Sennott then will likely be regretting it currently. As part of she calls a “wild, full-circle” story, she has manifested an ideal role. In 2019 she shared a video named “it’s LA” online, in which she parodied movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a show about Angelenos balancing benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your client being labeled as being a substance-abusing criminal, and possibly becoming a unreliable outcast). It would be simple to make a program about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, resulting in a representation of privileged young adult living that’s candid about the grot 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

Rose Hensley
Rose Hensley

A tech enthusiast and digital strategist with over a decade of experience in software development and innovation consulting.