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The performer appears on the video call and at once launches into an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, sounding genuinely apologetic. Despite being only a couple of minutes behind, she wants to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s exactly what is ideal to hear. Besides, it’s pretty expected. Viewers who know the boldly LGBTQ+ and brash project Bottoms—that Sennott penned with her creative partner and featured in with close companion The Bear’s standout—will understand that she holds much to share, whether on roles, intimacy, or the appeal of starting a teen combat group. And, by the end the recent eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that she has even more thoughts regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott serves as an honorary member for this generation, on the cusp with a knack for connecting different age groups).

Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction

The comparisons to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges a fan, citing it together with the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for her series, which details the struggles of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also aspiring representative Sennott’s character. Notably, the most significant spot on the moodboard was reserved for the HBO series, the program focusing on an emerging A-list actor making his way in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it during the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.

“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The inspiration for this project emerged—partly—from personal, originally rocky, transition to LA and from the saturn return, a popular occurrence for enthusiasts. That period marked an era that saw her learn some big life lessons, in her career and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Early Beginnings

Raised in New England, the star began writing and performing comedy while pursuing acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at open mics with Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) unconventional skits online. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically obsessed with having babies; a different one portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being trapped in a thriller. Interestingly, she met Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately featuring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been peers giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, continuing amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”

Rising Success

Anyone who were skeptical regarding Sennott previously will certainly be kicking themselves today. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she appears to achieved the perfect project. A few years back she shared content named “it’s LA” online, in which she parodied movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a show about Angelenos juggling the perks of digital stardom (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being suspected of being a substance-abusing thief, and possibly becoming a risky pariah). Some could easy to produce a show about online fame that was horribly aspirational—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a portrait of affluent millennial living that’s candid about the grot 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 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