Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and right away starts an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding really regretful. Despite being only a couple of minutes behind, she feels compelled to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, in this context, this is exactly what is ideal to experience. Moreover, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers who have seen her fearlessly queer and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and appeared in together with her friend The Bear’s standout—will understand that Sennott has a lot to say, be it on gender, relationships, or the merits of forming a teen brawl society. And, after watching the new eight-part program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she has further insights about the challenges of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott represents a bridge to younger audiences, on the cusp skilled for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being a fan, citing the show alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and the innovative program as inspirations for I Love LA, which follows the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. Notably, the biggest spot on the moodboard belonged to the HBO series, that HBO sitcom focusing on an emerging A-list actor navigating in an often-seedy Hollywood (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it throughout COVID-19, became “captivated”, and decided 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 inspiration for I Love LA originated—in part—from her own, initially fractious, move to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a popular event for astrology heads. That period marked a phase that involved her understand significant insights, professionally and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Raised in Connecticut, the star started 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. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She seized control, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and sharing uproarious (and distinctly) unconventional comedy videos online. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely fixated on pregnancy; a different one portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being trapped in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her career, she notes, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts about her previously will likely be kicking themselves now. In what she calls a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she appears to achieved the perfect project. Previously she shared a clip titled “it’s LA” on social media, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents juggling benefits of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a risky outcast). Some could simple to produce a series about online fame that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. This show does neither, resulting in a depiction of affluent millennial life that’s honest about the grot and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
