🔗 Share this article

Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and immediately begins an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, seeming really remorseful. Although she's only slightly delayed, she wants to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, for a writer, this is exactly what one hopes to experience. Besides, it’s pretty predictable. Viewers familiar with the fearlessly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—which Sennott penned with her creative partner and starred in with her friend The Bear’s standout—will already know that Sennott holds much to discuss, whether about identity, sex, or the merits of starting a youth combat group. Furthermore, by the end her recent seasonal show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries additional insights regarding the darker side of young adulthood (At 30, she is an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).

Inspirations and Creative Vision

Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being an admirer, referencing it together with the classic series, Insecure and the innovative program as guides for I Love LA, which follows the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and new agent portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the biggest spot on concept went to Entourage, the program focusing on a rising A-list actor succeeding in a corrupt entertainment industry (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it amid the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to create a new version 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 notes. The idea for the series emerged—in part—from personal, originally rocky, relocation to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a popular event for astrology heads. It was a time that involved her understand some big life lessons, in her career and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “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…”

Early Beginnings

Raised in Connecticut, Sennott commenced writing and performing stand-up while studying theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

She seized control, performing at live shows with her friend and uploading uproarious (and decidedly) bizarre comedy videos digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women obsessively obsessed with pregnancy; another envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being trapped in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a religious event with echoes of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her career, she notes, has been people her own age offering opportunities, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”

Manifesting Dreams

Individuals who were skeptical about her then will certainly be regretting it today. As part of she labels a “wild, full-circle” development, she seems to have manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she uploaded content named on LA life on social media, in which she mocked film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents juggling advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your client being labeled as being a intoxicated stealer, and perhaps becoming a unreliable outcast). Some could simple to produce a show about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, worse, one that punched down at those depicted. The series steers clear of each, resulting in a depiction of affluent millennial existence that’s frank about the mess and the glamour.

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 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