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Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and immediately begins an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, appearing really regretful. She is only a bit behind, she needs to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, in this context, this is exactly what one hopes to hear. Moreover, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone who have seen her unapologetically openly gay and unapologetically crass movie titled Bottoms—that she co-wrote with the director and appeared in alongside close companion the talented actress—will be aware that she holds a lot to say, be it about identity, sex, or the pros of creating a high-school brawl society. Plus, once you finish the recent eight-part program I Love LA, viewers realize that she has further thoughts about the challenges of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as an honorary member to younger audiences, straddling eras adept for connecting different age groups).

Influences and Creative Vision

Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and Sennott admits to being a fan, citing it in addition to the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as influences for her series, which details the travails of online personality Tallulah and her friend and fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. However, the most significant influence on the moodboard went to Entourage, that program depicting a rising A-list actor navigating in a gritty LA scene (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it throughout the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and decided to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The concept for the series originated—partly—from personal, originally rocky, move to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for followers. That period marked a time that included her grasp major insights, professionally and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Early Beginnings

Brought up in New England, the star started writing and performing stand-up while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

She decided to act independently, performing at open mics with her friend and uploading uproarious (and very) unconventional comedy videos on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, followed several females fetishistically obsessed with having babies; another portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being caught in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with hints of the intense thriller. The big theme of her career, she notes, has been people her own age offering opportunities, rather than traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, stating with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”

Career Breakthrough

Those who were skeptical about her previously will certainly be regretting it today. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” story, she has manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she posted a video titled on LA life on the internet, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about Angelenos juggling advantages of internet fame (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being accused of being a substance-abusing stealer, and perhaps becoming a risky pariah). Some could tempting to create a show about online fame that was overly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that mocked at the characters. This show steers clear of each, creating a portrait of privileged young adult life that’s frank about the mess and the shine.

Empathetic Approach

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