🔗 Share this article

The performer joins the online meeting and immediately launches into an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, sounding genuinely regretful. Despite being only slightly behind, she wants to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s exactly what one hopes to encounter. Besides, it’s fairly predictable. Viewers who know her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and brash movie Bottoms—that she collaborated on with the director and starred in alongside collaborator The Bear’s standout—can understand that she has a lot to share, whether on roles, intimacy, or the merits of starting a high-school combat group. And, once you finish the new multi-episode show titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds even more thoughts regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, she is an honorary member to younger audiences, straddling eras adept for straddling millennials and Gen Z).

Influences and Artistic Direction

Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott admits to being an admirer, citing it alongside the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which details the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also aspiring representative Maia. Perhaps, the most significant spot on the moodboard was reserved for the HBO series, the show depicting an emerging Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it during lockdown, became “captivated”, and chose to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The idea for this project emerged—in part—from firsthand, initially rocky, move to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. It was a phase that included her learn significant insights, work-wise and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” 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 resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Humble Origins

Brought up in New England, the star started writing and performing humor while studying theatre at a prestigious arts school. “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.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

Sennott took matters into her own hands, appearing at live shows with her friend and posting hysterical (and distinctly) bizarre comedy videos on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women obsessively obsessed with having babies; another imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a scary movie. Interestingly, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up appearing in her first film, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her journey, she notes, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, instead of the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who were skeptical about her then will surely be regretting it currently. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she posted a clip titled “it’s LA” online, in which she mocked film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about Angelenos balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being labeled as being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a risky persona non grata). Some could simple to make a series about internet celebrity that was overly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that mocked at its subjects. This show avoids both, resulting in a representation of advantaged twentysomething life that’s honest about the chaos and the glamour.

Empathetic Approach

“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