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Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and at once begins an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, appearing really remorseful. Although she's only a couple of minutes late, she feels compelled to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s precisely what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s fairly expected. Viewers who have seen her unapologetically queer and brash movie titled Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and starred in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will already know that she holds much to share, be it on roles, relationships, or the appeal of forming a teen brawl society. Furthermore, by the end the recent eight-part show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star carries additional thoughts about the challenges of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott is an honorary member to younger audiences, on the cusp skilled for bridging millennials and Gen Z).

Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction

The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, naming the show together with the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for the project, which tracks the journey of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also fledgling representative Maia. Notably, the largest presence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, that program focusing on an emerging Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and resolved to put her own twist 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 says. The concept for the series originated—partly—from her own, initially fractious, move to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about event for followers. This represented a time that saw her learn significant truths, work-wise and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “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, Sennott started writing and performing stand-up while enrolled in performance at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at live shows with Ayo and posting uproarious (and very) weird skits online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively obsessed with pregnancy; a different one portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being trapped in a thriller. By chance, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually starring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her career, she says, has been people her own age giving her a shot, as opposed to established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, stating humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”

Manifesting Dreams

Those who questioned about Sennott earlier will certainly be feeling foolish currently. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” story, she seems to have created the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded a video named “it’s LA” on social media, in which she parodied movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a comedy about Angelenos juggling advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being suspected of being a intoxicated criminal, and perhaps becoming a unreliable outcast). Some could easy to create a series about internet celebrity that was horribly idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at those depicted. This show does neither, resulting in a depiction of advantaged twentysomething existence that’s honest about the grot and the glamour.

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 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