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Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and at once launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely remorseful. Despite being only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, in this context, this is just what is ideal to hear. Besides, it’s pretty predictable. Those who have seen her boldly openly gay and outspoken movie Bottoms—which she penned with the director and appeared in with collaborator The Bear’s standout—can be aware that Sennott holds much to discuss, ranging from on gender, relationships, or the appeal of starting a teen combat group. And, once you finish her recent eight-part HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that she carries additional thoughts on the challenges of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as a bridge to younger audiences, straddling eras adept for bridging different age groups).

Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction

Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress admits to being a fan, naming the show alongside the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as influences for the project, which tracks the travails of a social media star Tallulah and ally and fledgling agent Sennott’s character. However, the most significant influence on concept was reserved for the HBO series, that HBO sitcom focusing on an emerging celebrity making his way in an often-seedy Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it amid the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to put her own twist 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 inspiration for I Love LA originated—in part—from firsthand, initially fractious, move to LA and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about occurrence for enthusiasts. This represented a time that saw her understand some big life lessons, work-wise and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Starting Out

Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced writing and performing comedy while pursuing performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. 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?”

She took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and posting uproarious (and decidedly) unconventional skits on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively drawn to motherhood; another portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a religious event with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her path, she explains, has been people her own age giving her a shot, as opposed to traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who were skeptical about her then will surely be kicking themselves now. Through she calls a “incredibly circular” story, she has manifested the perfect project. A few years back she uploaded content titled “it’s LA” on social media, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a comedy about LA residents juggling benefits of internet fame (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). Some could simple to produce a show about internet celebrity that was overly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that belittled at its subjects. The series steers clear of each, making for a depiction of advantaged young adult existence that’s candid about the chaos and the appeal.

Empathetic Approach

“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