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Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and right away starts an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming genuinely regretful. She is only a bit late, she feels compelled to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, in this context, this is exactly what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers familiar with the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass movie titled Bottoms—that Sennott penned with her creative partner and featured in alongside collaborator the talented actress—can understand that she possesses plenty to share, whether on gender, intimacy, or the appeal of starting a high-school combat group. Plus, after watching her latest seasonal HBO series I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries even more thoughts on the darker side of young adulthood (At 30, she is an honorary member of the gang, a tale-end millennial adept for bridging both generations).

Inspirations and Storytelling Approach

Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, citing the show in addition to the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as influences for I Love LA, which follows the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and new agent portrayed by Sennott. However, the most significant presence on the moodboard belonged to Entourage, that show focusing on a rising A-list actor making his way in a gritty Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it during the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The concept for the series came—in part—from personal, at first difficult, relocation to LA and from the astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for astrology heads. This represented a phase that involved her learn some big truths, professionally and personally. “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…”

Humble Origins

Growing up in New England, Sennott started writing and performing comedy while pursuing theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “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.”

She took matters into her own hands, appearing at live shows with her friend and posting hilarious (and decidedly) bizarre comedy videos digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women intensely obsessed with motherhood; a different one imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being caught in a horror film. Interestingly, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the intense thriller. The central motif of her career, she notes, has been people her own age giving her a shot, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, continuing amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”

Rising Success

Those who were skeptical regarding her previously will certainly be regretting it now. As part of she labels a “incredibly circular” story, she appears to created an ideal role. Previously she shared content called “it’s LA” on social media, in which she mocked movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a series about LA residents balancing benefits of online celebrity (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being suspected of being a drug-addled criminal, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). Some could easy to create a series about digital influence that was overly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at its subjects. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a depiction of privileged twentysomething life that’s candid about the grot and the appeal.

Nuanced Portrayal

“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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