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Rachel Sennott joins the video call and at once begins an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, sounding genuinely remorseful. Although she's only a couple of minutes delayed, she feels compelled to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, during an interview, that’s precisely what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s quite predictable. Viewers who know the unapologetically queer and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—which she penned with her creative partner and starred in with her friend The Bear’s standout—will understand that Sennott possesses plenty to share, whether about roles, sex, or the pros of starting a teen combat group. And, once you finish her new seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that she holds further insights regarding the struggles of modern youth (At 30, she represents a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp adept for straddling millennials and Gen Z).

Inspirations and Creative Vision

Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being a fan, referencing it alongside the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and ally and fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. Notably, the most significant influence on creative vision went to Entourage, that show focusing on a rising celebrity making his way in a corrupt entertainment industry (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it amid COVID-19, became “captivated”, and resolved 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 notes. The concept for this project came—partly—from personal, originally difficult, transition to LA and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for followers. That period marked a phase that involved her learn significant truths, work-wise and personally. “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.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Humble Origins

Brought up in New England, the star started writing and performing stand-up while studying theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

She took matters into her own hands, appearing at live shows with Edebiri and posting hysterical (and decidedly) bizarre skits online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted several females intensely fixated on motherhood; a different one envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she met Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her path, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, adding with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”

Career Breakthrough

Those who questioned about her earlier will certainly be feeling foolish currently. As part of she labels a “wild, full-circle” development, she has created an ideal role. A few years back she shared content called “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about LA residents managing the perks of online celebrity (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being labeled as being a substance-abusing thief, and potentially becoming a unreliable outcast). One might easy to produce a show about digital influence that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that punched down at those depicted. I Love LA avoids both, making for a portrait of affluent young adult existence that’s frank about the mess 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 comments. “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