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Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and right away begins an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, appearing genuinely remorseful. She is only slightly delayed, she feels compelled to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s exactly what one hopes to hear. Besides, it’s fairly predictable. Those familiar with the fearlessly queer and outspoken film titled Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with her creative partner and featured in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will understand that she has a lot to say, whether on identity, relationships, or the pros of forming a high-school brawl society. Plus, by the end the new eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that she has additional insights regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott is an honorary member for this generation, a tale-end millennial adept for connecting millennials and Gen Z).

Inspirations and Storytelling Approach

The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress is a fan, referencing it together with Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for I Love LA, which tracks the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and aspiring agent Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the most significant presence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, the show depicting an emerging Hollywood star succeeding in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it amid lockdown, became “captivated”, and resolved to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she notes. The inspiration for this project came—to some extent—from personal, at first rocky, move to Los Angeles and from the cosmic event, a frequently discussed occurrence for enthusiasts. That period marked a phase that included her grasp some big truths, work-wise and in private life. “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.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Humble Origins

Raised in the East Coast, Sennott commenced writing and performing comedy while pursuing theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. 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?”

She took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with Ayo and posting hysterical (and distinctly) unconventional skits on the internet. One, Baby Cult, centered on several females intensely fixated on pregnancy; a different one portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and eventually appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her path, she says, has been people her own age offering opportunities, rather than the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, stating with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Rising Success

Anyone who were skeptical regarding her earlier will surely be feeling foolish today. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she has achieved her dream vehicle. A few years back she uploaded content called on LA life on the internet, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers balancing benefits of digital stardom (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being labeled as being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be simple to produce a program about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at the characters. The series does neither, resulting in a representation of affluent millennial living that’s candid about the chaos and the appeal.

Nuanced Portrayal

“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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