The star appears on the video call and immediately begins an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, seeming really remorseful. Although she's only slightly behind, she feels compelled to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, during an interview, this is exactly what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s pretty expected. Those who have seen her unapologetically openly gay and brash film Bottoms—that she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and featured in with collaborator The Bear’s standout—will understand that she possesses much to say, whether about gender, intimacy, or the pros of forming a teen combat group. And, by the end her recent eight-part show titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries further perspectives about the struggles of young adulthood (At 30, she serves as a relatable figure to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial adept for connecting both generations).
Influences and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, referencing it in addition to Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as guides for her series, which follows the struggles of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and aspiring representative Maia. However, the most significant presence on the moodboard belonged to Entourage, that show depicting a rising celebrity succeeding in a corrupt entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “captivated”, and decided to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“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—partly—from personal, originally fractious, move to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about event for followers. That period marked a time that involved her learn significant truths, work-wise and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Starting Out
Growing up in Connecticut, the star began writing and performing comedy while enrolled in theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “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 decided to act independently, performing at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and very) weird comedy videos on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on several females intensely fixated on pregnancy; another portrayed working at the brand Hollister as like being stuck in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually appearing in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a religious event with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she says, has been peers giving her a shot, as opposed to traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts regarding her then will surely be regretting it currently. In what she labels a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have achieved the perfect project. A few years back she shared content called on LA life on social media, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents balancing the perks of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being suspected of being a substance-abusing thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable persona non grata). Some could simple to make a series about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, worse, one that punched down at the characters. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a depiction of advantaged young adult living that’s candid about the mess and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
