Rachel Sennott exploring the side-splitting show depicting the chaotic allure of today's youth existence

Rachel Sennott joins the digital interview and right away starts an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding really regretful. Although she's only a couple of minutes delayed, she wants to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s exactly what you want to encounter. Additionally, it’s quite predictable. Viewers familiar with the boldly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside her friend The Bear’s standout—would be aware that she holds a lot to discuss, ranging from on identity, intimacy, or the pros of starting a teen brawl society. Furthermore, once you finish her new multi-episode show titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries further thoughts regarding the struggles of modern youth (As a millennial, Sennott represents an honorary member of the gang, on the cusp adept for bridging millennials and Gen Z).

Inspirations and Artistic Direction

Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges a fan, referencing the show together with the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which details the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and new agent portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the largest influence on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, the show focusing on a rising A-list actor making his way in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to add a fresh perspective 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 says. The idea for the series emerged—partly—from her own, initially difficult, relocation to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. It was an era that included her grasp some big insights, work-wise and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “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 Connecticut, the star commenced writing and performing humor while studying performance at NYU’s Tisch. “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. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at amateur nights with Ayo and posting uproarious (and distinctly) unconventional comedy videos digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women intensely fixated on having babies; a different one portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as like being stuck in a thriller. By chance, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the intense thriller. The central motif of her journey, she notes, has been peers offering opportunities, rather than the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, stating with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”

Rising Success

Anyone who questioned about Sennott previously will likely be feeling foolish currently. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” development, she appears to created an ideal role. A few years back she shared a clip titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers managing advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled criminal, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). Some could easy to create a series about internet celebrity that was overly glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at those depicted. The series avoids both, creating a depiction of affluent millennial living that’s honest about the grot and the appeal.

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 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