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Rachel Sennott enters the video call and at once starts an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, appearing really apologetic. Despite being only a couple of minutes late, 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!” Luckily, for a writer, this is precisely what one hopes to hear. Moreover, it’s quite expected. Those who know the unapologetically queer and outspoken film titled Bottoms—that she collaborated on with the director and featured in alongside close companion the talented actress—would already know that she has plenty to say, ranging from about identity, relationships, or the merits of creating a youth fight club. Furthermore, after watching her latest multi-episode show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds even more thoughts on the darker side of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott is a bridge of the gang, a tale-end millennial with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).

Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach

Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott is a fan, naming the show together with Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as inspirations for I Love LA, which follows the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also new representative Sennott’s character. Notably, the most significant influence on creative vision was reserved for Entourage, the show depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it during the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and chose to put her own twist 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 concept for I Love LA came—partly—from firsthand, initially fractious, transition to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a frequently discussed phenomenon for astrology heads. It was a time that involved her learn significant insights, professionally and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Early Beginnings

Raised in New England, Sennott started developing and showcasing comedy while enrolled in theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” 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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

She decided to act independently, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and posting hysterical (and very) unconventional comedy videos digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women fetishistically obsessed with pregnancy; a different one portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her career, she explains, has been people her own age offering opportunities, instead of the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Rising Success

Those who were skeptical regarding her then will surely be feeling foolish currently. In what she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she appears to created an ideal role. Previously she posted a video titled on LA life online, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a show about city dwellers balancing benefits of internet fame (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your friend being labeled as being a substance-abusing thief, and possibly becoming a unreliable pariah). One might tempting to create a program about internet celebrity that was extremely aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, making for a representation of advantaged twentysomething existence that’s frank about the grot and the shine.

Nuanced Portrayal

“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