The star appears on the video call and right away starts an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, seeming truly regretful. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s just what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s quite expected. Anyone familiar with her boldly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—that she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and featured in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will already know that Sennott holds a lot to discuss, ranging from about roles, intimacy, or the merits of creating a teen brawl society. Furthermore, after watching her new seasonal show I Love LA, it is clear that she holds further perspectives on the darker side of young adulthood (At 30, Sennott serves as a bridge to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for bridging both generations).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott is a fan, referencing the show in addition to Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for the project, which follows the struggles of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the most significant spot on concept belonged to Entourage, the program depicting a rising celebrity navigating in an often-seedy LA scene (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The idea for I Love LA came—in part—from firsthand, initially fractious, transition to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. That period marked an era that involved her learn major life lessons, professionally and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” 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 Connecticut, the star began developing and showcasing humor while studying theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at open mics with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and very) bizarre skits on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on several females intensely obsessed with having babies; a different one envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being caught in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her journey, she explains, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, rather than traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, adding with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Those who were skeptical regarding her previously will certainly be kicking themselves today. As part of she describes as a “wild, full-circle” story, she has achieved her dream vehicle. In 2019 she uploaded a clip called “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a show about city dwellers balancing the perks of online celebrity (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your client being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). One might easy to create a show about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at those depicted. The series avoids both, making for a representation of privileged millennial life that’s honest about the grot and the shine.
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
