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Rachel Sennott appears on the online meeting and right away begins an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding genuinely apologetic. Although she's only a couple of minutes behind, she needs to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, in this context, that’s just what you want to hear. Besides, it’s pretty unsurprising. Viewers who have seen her unapologetically openly gay and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with her creative partner and featured in together with her friend the talented actress—would understand that Sennott holds a lot to say, ranging from about gender, relationships, or the appeal of forming a teen combat group. And, after watching her latest multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has additional thoughts on the darker side of young adulthood (As a millennial, she is a bridge of the gang, on the cusp adept for straddling both generations).

Influences and Artistic Direction

Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, naming the show alongside the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and ally and new representative Maia. Notably, the biggest presence on creative vision belonged to the HBO series, that program depicting a rising A-list actor navigating in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it during COVID-19, became “captivated”, and decided to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The concept for the series emerged—in part—from personal, originally difficult, move to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. This represented a phase that involved her understand significant insights, in her career and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Starting Out

Growing up in New England, Sennott commenced creating and acting humor while studying theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

She took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and uploading uproarious (and decidedly) bizarre online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on several females obsessively obsessed with pregnancy; another imagined working at the brand Hollister as akin to being caught in a horror film. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up featuring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, as opposed to traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, continuing humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who questioned about her previously will likely be feeling foolish now. As part of she calls a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she appears to created the perfect project. In 2019 she posted a video named on LA life on the internet, in which she parodied movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a comedy about Angelenos juggling benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being suspected of being a intoxicated criminal, and possibly becoming a risky outcast). Some could tempting to create a program about internet celebrity that was horribly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that punched down at the characters. The series does neither, making for a depiction of privileged twentysomething living that’s frank about the mess and the shine.

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