Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and at once starts an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, sounding truly apologetic. She is only slightly late, she needs to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, for a writer, this is precisely what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Viewers who know her boldly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with her creative partner and featured in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—would understand that Sennott has much to share, be it about gender, relationships, or the appeal of forming a youth brawl society. And, by the end the latest seasonal show I Love LA, viewers realize that she holds further thoughts on the struggles of modern youth (As a millennial, she serves as an honorary member to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being an admirer, citing the show in addition to the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as influences for the project, which follows the struggles of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also aspiring agent Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the most significant presence on the moodboard went to Entourage, the program focusing on an up-and-coming Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt LA scene (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it throughout the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and chose to add a fresh perspective 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 explains. The inspiration for the series came—partly—from personal, at first fractious, move to LA and from the astrological phase, a frequently discussed event for astrology heads. It was a phase that involved her grasp significant truths, in her career and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “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…”
Early Beginnings
Raised in the East Coast, the star began developing and showcasing comedy while studying acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at open mics with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and distinctly) bizarre online content digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically drawn to motherhood; another imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being trapped in a scary movie. By chance, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up appearing in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a religious event with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her path, she explains, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Those who were skeptical regarding her then will certainly be kicking themselves today. Through she calls a “wild, full-circle” development, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. In 2019 she uploaded content titled “it’s LA” online, in which she parodied movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a comedy about city dwellers juggling the perks of digital stardom (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). It would be tempting to make a program about online fame that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. This show avoids both, creating a representation of advantaged young adult life that’s candid about the chaos 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
