The performer enters the video call and at once launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, appearing really remorseful. Although she's only a bit behind, she feels compelled to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, in this context, that’s just what is ideal to experience. Besides, it’s pretty predictable. Those who know the boldly queer and brash movie Bottoms—that she penned with Emma Seligman and featured in with close companion Ayo Edebiri—can understand that she holds a lot to say, whether on identity, sex, or the appeal of creating a youth brawl society. Plus, once you finish the recent eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she has even more thoughts about the challenges of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp skilled for straddling both generations).
Inspirations and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress is an admirer, referencing it in addition to the HBO hit, Insecure and Atlanta as influences for I Love LA, which tracks the travails of a social media star Tallulah and ally who is also aspiring talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the most significant influence on the moodboard belonged to the HBO series, that program about an up-and-coming Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt Hollywood (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it amid the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and decided to add a fresh perspective 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 notes. The concept for the series came—partly—from personal, at first fractious, transition to LA and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about occurrence for followers. That period marked a phase that included her grasp some big insights, professionally and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “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 …”
Humble Origins
Growing up in Connecticut, the star began writing and performing comedy while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She took matters into her own hands, performing at open mics with Ayo and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) weird comedy videos online. One, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women obsessively drawn to pregnancy; a different one envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being caught in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a religious event with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, continuing humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Anyone who questioned about her previously will surely be kicking themselves currently. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” development, she has created an ideal role. Previously she posted content titled on LA life online, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos juggling benefits of digital stardom (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being accused of being a substance-abusing thief, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). One might easy to create a series about digital influence that was horribly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at the characters. This show does neither, creating a portrait of advantaged millennial existence that’s candid about the chaos and the shine.
Empathetic Approach
“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
