The performer enters the digital interview and immediately begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely remorseful. Despite being only a couple of minutes late, she feels compelled to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is precisely what is ideal to hear. Moreover, it’s quite expected. Viewers who know her boldly queer and outspoken film Bottoms—which Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—will understand that she holds a lot to say, be it about roles, intimacy, or the merits of starting a high-school fight club. Plus, once you finish her recent multi-episode show I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries further insights regarding the darker side of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp skilled for bridging both generations).
Influences and Creative Vision
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being a fan, naming the show together with the classic series, Insecure and Atlanta as influences for the project, which details the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also aspiring agent Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the largest spot on creative vision went to the HBO series, that show focusing on an up-and-coming Hollywood star making his way in an often-seedy LA scene (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it amid lockdown, became “captivated”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The concept for I Love LA emerged—in part—from personal, originally difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented a phase that saw her grasp major truths, work-wise and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” 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 was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott commenced writing and performing comedy while studying acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing hilarious (and very) bizarre skits on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on several females obsessively fixated on motherhood; another portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being caught in a thriller. By chance, she met Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she notes, has been people her own age giving her a shot, instead of the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she confirms, stating amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts regarding her earlier will certainly be feeling foolish today. In what she calls a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she appears to created an ideal role. In 2019 she shared content titled on LA life online, in which she parodied film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a show about Angelenos managing advantages of internet fame (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your friend being labeled as being a substance-abusing thief, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). It would be simple to make a series about internet celebrity that was horribly idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at those depicted. This show does neither, resulting in a portrait of privileged millennial life that’s honest about the grot and the shine.
Nuanced Portrayal
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
