The performer enters the digital interview and right away begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, sounding truly regretful. Although she's only a bit behind, she feels compelled to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s exactly what is ideal to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty predictable. Anyone familiar with her boldly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with her creative partner and featured in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—can already know that Sennott possesses much to discuss, be it on gender, intimacy, or the pros of starting a teen fight club. Furthermore, once you finish her new eight-part program titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds further perspectives regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents a relatable figure to younger audiences, on the cusp skilled for straddling both generations).
Guiding Lights and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott is enthusiastic, naming the show together with the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for the project, which details the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also new talent manager Maia. However, the most significant spot on creative vision went to the HBO series, the HBO sitcom focusing on an emerging Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt entertainment industry (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it amid lockdown, became “captivated”, and chose to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The idea for I Love LA emerged—to some extent—from her own, originally rocky, relocation to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a much-talked-about event for enthusiasts. That period marked a phase that included her grasp major life lessons, in her career and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott started creating and acting comedy while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott seized control, appearing at amateur nights with Ayo and posting hilarious (and decidedly) bizarre skits online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically drawn to having babies; a different one portrayed working at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being caught in a scary movie. By chance, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her journey, she says, has been people her own age supporting her, instead of established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, adding with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Individuals who had doubts regarding Sennott then will likely be regretting it currently. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has created the perfect project. A few years back she uploaded a video named on LA life on the internet, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a show about city dwellers managing advantages of internet fame (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your friend being accused of being a intoxicated criminal, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could tempting to produce a show about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that punched down at its subjects. This show avoids both, resulting in a depiction of privileged millennial existence that’s frank about the chaos and the appeal.
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 says. “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
