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Rachel Sennott enters the video call and immediately starts an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely remorseful. She is only slightly delayed, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, during an interview, this is exactly what is ideal to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty unsurprising. Viewers familiar with her unapologetically openly gay and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—that she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in together with close companion The Bear’s standout—will understand that she holds much to share, whether on gender, intimacy, or the pros of starting a youth fight club. Plus, once you finish the new multi-episode show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has additional thoughts regarding the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she serves as a bridge of the gang, a tale-end millennial adept for straddling different age groups).

Inspirations and Storytelling Approach

Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and Sennott is a fan, citing the show alongside the classic series, Insecure and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which follows the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also fledgling representative Maia. Notably, the most significant influence on the moodboard belonged to the popular sitcom, that program about a rising A-list actor succeeding in a gritty entertainment industry (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it during the pandemic, became “captivated”, and chose to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.

“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The concept for I Love LA emerged—in part—from personal, originally rocky, transition to LA and from the astrological phase, a popular occurrence for enthusiasts. This represented a phase that involved her learn major life lessons, 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.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Humble Origins

Raised in the East Coast, the star commenced writing and performing stand-up while studying performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” 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.”

Sennott seized control, performing at amateur nights with her friend and posting hilarious (and decidedly) bizarre online content digitally. One, Baby Cult, followed several females obsessively obsessed with pregnancy; a different one imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a thriller. By chance, she met Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a religious event with echoes of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been peers offering opportunities, as opposed to the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, adding with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”

Career Breakthrough

Those who had doubts about her then will surely be regretting it currently. Through she calls a “incredibly circular” development, she seems to have manifested the perfect project. Previously she shared a clip called “it’s LA” on social media, in which she lampooned movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a show about city dwellers balancing benefits of internet fame (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your client being labeled as being a intoxicated criminal, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). One might simple to create a series about digital influence that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. The series does neither, making for a portrait of affluent young adult living that’s honest about the mess and the appeal.

Balanced Perspective

“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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