The star appears on the digital interview and immediately launches into an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely remorseful. Despite being only slightly behind, she needs to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, in this context, this is just what is ideal to hear. Besides, it’s fairly expected. Viewers familiar with her unapologetically queer and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—can already know that Sennott holds a lot to share, ranging from on gender, intimacy, or the pros of forming a youth fight club. And, once you finish the new eight-part show titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds even more perspectives on the struggles of young adulthood (As a millennial, she represents a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp adept for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is an admirer, referencing the show in addition to the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as influences for her series, which tracks the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and her friend and new talent manager Maia. Perhaps, the largest spot on concept went to the HBO series, the HBO sitcom about an up-and-coming A-list actor navigating in a corrupt Hollywood (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and resolved to create a new version 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 I Love LA originated—partly—from firsthand, at first rocky, move to LA and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about event for astrology heads. This represented a time that included her learn major insights, professionally and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Brought up in Connecticut, the star began developing and showcasing humor while studying acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
Sennott seized control, performing at amateur nights with Edebiri and uploading uproarious (and very) bizarre comedy videos digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, followed characters intensely fixated on having babies; a different one portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being caught in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and eventually appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a religious event with hints of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her path, she says, has been peers giving her a shot, as opposed to established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she repeats, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Anyone who were skeptical regarding her then will likely be feeling foolish currently. Through she labels a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she seems to have achieved the perfect project. In 2019 she posted a clip titled “it’s LA” on social media, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a show about city dwellers balancing benefits of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being accused of being a intoxicated thief, and perhaps becoming a risky pariah). One might tempting to make a show about digital influence that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at the characters. The series avoids both, resulting in a representation of advantaged millennial living that’s candid about the mess and the shine.
“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” she comments. “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
