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Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and at once begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing truly regretful. Although she's only a couple of minutes delayed, she wants to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, in this context, this is precisely what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone familiar with her fearlessly LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie Bottoms—which she collaborated on with the director and featured in with her friend the talented actress—would understand that Sennott holds plenty to say, whether on gender, relationships, or the pros of forming a high-school combat group. Furthermore, once you finish the recent multi-episode show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she holds additional insights about the darker side of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott represents a bridge to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for straddling different age groups).

Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction

The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is a fan, referencing the show in addition to the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as inspirations for the project, which follows the struggles of online personality Tallulah and ally and fledgling representative portrayed by Sennott. However, the largest spot on the moodboard went to Entourage, the show depicting a rising Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “captivated”, and chose 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 concept for this project emerged—to some extent—from firsthand, originally fractious, move to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a frequently discussed phenomenon for followers. This represented an era that involved her grasp some big truths, in her career and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Early Beginnings

Growing up in the East Coast, Sennott started developing and showcasing humor while pursuing theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

Sennott took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with her friend and uploading uproarious (and very) weird skits digitally. One, Baby Cult, followed characters intensely fixated on pregnancy; a different one imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being caught in a thriller. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and eventually appearing in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her path, she notes, has been peers giving her a shot, instead of established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, stating humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”

Career Breakthrough

Those who had doubts about her previously will surely be kicking themselves currently. Through she describes as a “astonishingly complete” story, she seems to have manifested an ideal role. In 2019 she uploaded a clip titled “it’s LA” on social media, in which she parodied movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a comedy about Angelenos managing the perks of online celebrity (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your friend being suspected of being a substance-abusing stealer, and possibly becoming a unreliable persona non grata). Some could easy to create a series about internet celebrity that was extremely glamorous—or, more problematic, one that punched down at the characters. I Love LA avoids both, creating a depiction of affluent millennial existence that’s frank about the chaos and the appeal.

Nuanced Portrayal

“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