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The star joins the digital interview and right away starts an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding really remorseful. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, in this context, that’s just what you want to hear. Moreover, it’s pretty unsurprising. Viewers familiar with the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside close companion Ayo Edebiri—can understand that Sennott has plenty to discuss, whether on identity, intimacy, or the appeal of creating a teen combat group. And, after watching her recent seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that she has further insights on the struggles of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott represents a bridge to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial adept for connecting both generations).

Inspirations and Artistic Direction

Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and Sennott admits to being a fan, citing the show alongside the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the journey of a social media star Tallulah and close companion who is also new representative Maia. Notably, the largest spot on the moodboard belonged to the HBO series, that show about an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it during lockdown, became “hooked”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The idea for this project came—to some extent—from personal, initially rocky, relocation to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for astrology heads. This represented an era that included her understand some big life lessons, professionally and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “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 Connecticut, Sennott started writing and performing stand-up while studying theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “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 decided to act independently, appearing at live shows with Ayo and posting hysterical (and very) weird online content on the internet. One, Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively fixated on motherhood; a different one portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a thriller. By chance, she met Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a religious event with hints of the intense thriller. The central motif of her career, she explains, has been people her own age supporting her, rather than traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”

Rising Success

Those who had doubts regarding Sennott earlier will surely be feeling foolish currently. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” development, she appears to created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she shared a clip 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 a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a comedy about city dwellers juggling benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your associate being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). One might easy to produce a series about digital influence that was extremely aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at the characters. This show does neither, making for a depiction of advantaged twentysomething living that’s frank about the chaos and the glamour.

Balanced Perspective

“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