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The star joins the online meeting and immediately starts an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding truly apologetic. Although she's only a couple of minutes delayed, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, for a writer, this is exactly what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s quite expected. Those who have seen the fearlessly queer and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—which she collaborated on with the director and featured in alongside collaborator the talented actress—would already know that Sennott holds plenty to say, be it on identity, sex, or the pros of forming a high-school brawl society. And, once you finish her recent seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star has even more insights on the darker side of modern youth (As a millennial, she is a bridge for this generation, a tale-end millennial with a knack for connecting different age groups).

Influences and Creative Vision

Likenesses to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress is an admirer, citing the show together with the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which follows the journey of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and aspiring representative Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the biggest presence on concept belonged to the HBO series, the show depicting a rising celebrity making his way in a gritty entertainment industry (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it during lockdown, became “captivated”, and resolved to create a new version 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 notes. The inspiration for the series came—to some extent—from personal, at first difficult, relocation to LA and from her astrological phase, a frequently discussed phenomenon for enthusiasts. It was a time that saw her understand some big insights, in her career and in private life. “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…”

Humble Origins

Raised in the East Coast, Sennott started writing and performing stand-up while studying performance at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at live shows with her friend and sharing uproarious (and decidedly) weird skits digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted several females intensely fixated on motherhood; another envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being caught in a scary movie. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her journey, she notes, has been people her own age offering opportunities, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who had doubts about Sennott then will surely be feeling foolish today. Through she calls a “incredibly circular” development, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. In 2019 she posted a video titled “it’s LA” on social media, in which she mocked movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about city dwellers managing the perks of online celebrity (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your associate being suspected of being a substance-abusing stealer, and possibly becoming a unreliable outcast). Some could easy to create a series about online fame that was overly idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. This show does neither, making for a representation of privileged young adult living that’s candid about the mess 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