The star enters the digital interview and right away starts an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, appearing genuinely regretful. Despite being only a couple of minutes behind, she feels compelled to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, for a writer, this is exactly what is ideal to experience. Moreover, it’s fairly unsurprising. Those who know the boldly LGBTQ+ and brash film Bottoms—that she collaborated on with the director and appeared in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—will be aware that she holds a lot to say, ranging from about identity, intimacy, or the appeal of creating a high-school fight club. Furthermore, once you finish the latest seasonal show I Love LA, it is clear that she has even more insights regarding the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she represents a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp with a knack for straddling different age groups).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott readily acknowledges a fan, referencing the show together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which details the journey of online personality Tallulah and ally and fledgling agent Maia. Perhaps, the most significant spot on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom focusing on an up-and-coming celebrity succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The inspiration for the series originated—partly—from her own, at first rocky, relocation to LA and from her astrological phase, a frequently discussed event for followers. It was a time that included her grasp significant insights, in her career and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Brought up in New England, Sennott started writing and performing humor while enrolled in theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She seized control, appearing at live shows with Ayo and uploading hilarious (and very) weird online content on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women obsessively drawn to having babies; a different one portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her career, she explains, has been people her own age giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she repeats, continuing humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who questioned regarding her then will surely be regretting it currently. As part of she labels a “astonishingly complete” story, she has manifested her dream vehicle. Previously she posted a video named on LA life on social media, in which she parodied film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a comedy about Angelenos balancing advantages of internet fame (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your client being suspected of being a substance-abusing thief, and perhaps becoming a risky pariah). Some could easy to make a program about online fame that was horribly glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at those depicted. The series does neither, resulting in a depiction of affluent millennial living that’s honest about the chaos and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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
