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Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and at once launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, sounding really apologetic. Although she's only a bit behind, she feels compelled to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s precisely what is ideal to encounter. Additionally, it’s fairly predictable. Anyone who have seen the boldly queer and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—that she co-wrote with her creative partner and featured in with collaborator The Bear’s standout—would understand that she holds much to say, whether about gender, relationships, or the pros of forming a youth brawl society. And, after watching her new multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds even more thoughts on the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as an honorary member to younger audiences, straddling eras skilled for connecting millennials and Gen Z).

Influences and Creative Vision

Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, citing the show together with the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as guides for I Love LA, which follows the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and new representative Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the most significant presence on the moodboard belonged to Entourage, the HBO sitcom about an emerging Hollywood star succeeding in a corrupt Hollywood (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it amid lockdown, became “hooked”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The idea for the series originated—in part—from firsthand, originally rocky, relocation to Los Angeles and from her cosmic event, a frequently discussed occurrence for followers. That period marked an era that saw her understand some big insights, in her career and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Humble Origins

Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced creating and acting humor while enrolled in acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and posting hysterical (and distinctly) unconventional skits online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed characters intensely obsessed with pregnancy; a different one envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately appearing in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a Jewish wake with hints of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her career, she notes, has been people her own age giving her a shot, as opposed to the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who questioned regarding her previously will surely be feeling foolish now. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” development, she appears to achieved an ideal role. A few years back she shared content titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she parodied movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a show about LA residents balancing the perks of online celebrity (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your client being accused of being a substance-abusing thief, and perhaps becoming a risky persona non grata). One might tempting to make a show about internet celebrity that was extremely aspirational—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, resulting in a depiction of affluent young adult living that’s candid about the chaos and the glamour.

Empathetic Approach

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