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The performer joins the digital interview and at once launches into an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming truly apologetic. She is only slightly late, she feels compelled to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s just what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s quite predictable. Those familiar with her boldly openly gay and brash project titled Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with her creative partner and starred in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—can already know that she holds much to discuss, whether about gender, relationships, or the appeal of starting a teen combat group. Furthermore, once you finish the latest seasonal program I Love LA, viewers realize that she holds even more thoughts on the struggles of Gen Z life (At 30, she is an honorary member of the gang, on the cusp with a knack for connecting both generations).

Inspirations and Creative Vision

Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, naming the show in addition to the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as guides for I Love LA, which tracks the journey of online personality Tallulah and close companion who is also new agent Maia. Notably, the biggest influence on creative vision belonged to the HBO series, that program about a rising Hollywood star succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it throughout COVID-19, became “captivated”, and chose to add a fresh perspective 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 explains. The inspiration for this project originated—to some extent—from her own, initially difficult, move to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed phenomenon for astrology heads. It was a time that saw her grasp some big insights, professionally and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Early Beginnings

Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott began creating and acting stand-up while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with Edebiri and posting hysterical (and very) unconventional skits online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters fetishistically fixated on motherhood; another portrayed working at the brand Hollister as akin to being stuck in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and eventually featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a religious event with shades of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her career, she says, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, instead of established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, adding with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Individuals who were skeptical about her then will certainly be feeling foolish now. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” story, she seems to have manifested the perfect project. Previously she uploaded a clip named “it’s LA” online, in which she mocked movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers managing benefits of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your friend being labeled as being a substance-abusing stealer, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). One might simple to make a show about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that mocked at the characters. I Love LA does neither, resulting in a depiction of affluent young adult life that’s honest about the mess and the glamour.

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