The star enters the video call and immediately launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, seeming genuinely regretful. She is only a couple of minutes behind, she needs to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, during an interview, this is exactly what one hopes to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty predictable. Those who know the unapologetically openly gay and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—that she penned with her creative partner and featured in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—would understand that she holds plenty to discuss, ranging from about gender, sex, or the appeal of forming a teen brawl society. Plus, by the end the new multi-episode program titled I Love LA, it is clear that she has additional insights about the darker side of young adulthood (At 30, Sennott is an honorary member for this generation, straddling eras skilled for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and the actress is a fan, citing the show alongside the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which follows the struggles of online personality Tallulah and her friend and fledgling representative Maia. Notably, the biggest presence on the moodboard went to Entourage, the program about a rising celebrity making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it during COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and decided to add a fresh perspective 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 notes. The inspiration for the series originated—in part—from her own, initially fractious, move to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a popular occurrence for astrology heads. This represented a phase that saw her learn significant truths, professionally and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Brought up in New England, Sennott began creating and acting comedy while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She took matters into her own hands, appearing at open mics with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and distinctly) bizarre skits digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed characters intensely obsessed with having babies; a different one envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being caught in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she met Emma through NYU’s movie community and ultimately appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her path, she explains, has been peers giving her a shot, instead of traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, continuing humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who had doubts regarding Sennott earlier will surely be regretting it currently. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” development, she seems to have achieved an ideal role. In 2019 she posted a clip called about Los Angeles online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a series about city dwellers managing benefits of internet fame (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled stealer, and perhaps becoming a risky persona non grata). Some could simple to produce a show about internet celebrity that was extremely glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at its subjects. This show steers clear of each, making for a portrait of advantaged millennial living that’s candid about the grot and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
