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The performer joins the video call and at once launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, appearing genuinely regretful. Despite being only a couple of minutes delayed, she feels compelled to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s exactly what is ideal to hear. Moreover, it’s quite expected. Viewers who have seen her fearlessly openly gay and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside close companion the talented actress—would be aware that Sennott has plenty to share, ranging from on roles, sex, or the pros of starting a high-school fight club. Plus, by the end her latest multi-episode show titled I Love LA, it is clear that she carries additional thoughts about the darker side of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott is a relatable figure to younger audiences, on the cusp adept for connecting different age groups).

Inspirations and Storytelling Approach

Likenesses to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress is enthusiastic, citing the show in addition to the HBO hit, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and aspiring agent portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the biggest spot on creative vision was reserved for Entourage, the program about an emerging A-list actor navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it during the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.

“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she notes. The idea for the series originated—to some extent—from her own, at first fractious, relocation to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. That period marked a phase that saw her understand significant truths, in her career and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Early Beginnings

Raised in New England, Sennott began creating and acting humor while pursuing 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. “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 Ayo and uploading uproarious (and decidedly) weird comedy videos digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed a group of women fetishistically fixated on having babies; a different one imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up appearing in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a religious event with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her path, she says, has been peers supporting her, rather than the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, stating with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”

Manifesting Dreams

Those who questioned regarding her earlier will surely be regretting it currently. As part of she calls a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she seems to have manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded a video called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she lampooned film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a show about LA residents balancing the perks of online celebrity (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). It would be tempting to create a series about digital influence that was horribly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA steers clear of each, resulting in a portrait of affluent twentysomething life that’s frank about the grot and the appeal.

Balanced Perspective

“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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