🔗 Share this article

Rachel Sennott appears on the online meeting and right away begins an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, sounding truly remorseful. She is only a couple of minutes behind, she wants to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, in this context, this is precisely what is ideal to experience. Besides, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those familiar with the unapologetically openly gay and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—which she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and featured in together with collaborator the talented actress—would understand that Sennott has a lot to share, whether on identity, sex, or the merits of forming a youth fight club. And, by the end her new seasonal program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds further perspectives on the challenges of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she is an honorary member of the gang, on the cusp skilled for connecting millennials and Gen Z).

Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach

The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, citing the show together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as inspirations for the project, which tracks the struggles of online personality Tallulah and ally and new representative portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the most significant spot on the moodboard went to the HBO series, that program depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it during the pandemic, became “captivated”, and chose 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 explains. The inspiration for the series came—in part—from firsthand, originally difficult, transition to LA and from the saturn return, a popular phenomenon for followers. This represented a phase that saw her grasp major insights, professionally and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Starting Out

Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott began writing and performing humor while enrolled in performance 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. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

She decided to act independently, performing at open mics with Ayo and posting hysterical (and very) unconventional comedy videos digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, followed several females fetishistically obsessed with motherhood; a different one envisioned working at the brand Hollister as similar to being trapped in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her path, she notes, has been people her own age offering opportunities, instead of traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, continuing amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”

Career Breakthrough

Those who had doubts about her earlier will certainly be kicking themselves now. Through she describes as a “astonishingly complete” development, she seems to have manifested an ideal role. Previously she uploaded a clip titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a show about city dwellers managing advantages of online celebrity (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your client being suspected of being a intoxicated stealer, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). It would be easy to produce a program about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at those depicted. The series steers clear of each, making for a depiction of advantaged millennial existence that’s frank about the mess and the appeal.

Nuanced Portrayal

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