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Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and right away begins an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, seeming truly regretful. Although she's only a bit late, she needs to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s exactly what you want to hear. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Viewers who know the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken project Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in together with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will be aware that she has a lot to say, whether about gender, sex, or the merits of starting a teen brawl society. Plus, by the end the recent eight-part program I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds even more perspectives on the struggles of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she represents a bridge for this generation, on the cusp adept for straddling different age groups).

Inspirations and Storytelling Approach

Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being an admirer, citing it alongside Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which follows the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and aspiring talent manager Maia. However, the biggest influence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, that HBO sitcom about a rising celebrity navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it amid the pandemic, became “captivated”, and resolved to put her own twist 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 inspiration for the series emerged—in part—from firsthand, at first rocky, move to LA and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about occurrence for followers. That period marked a phase that saw her learn major life lessons, work-wise and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Humble Origins

Brought up in New England, Sennott commenced creating and acting comedy while enrolled in theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “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.”

Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at live shows with her friend and sharing hysterical (and distinctly) bizarre skits digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women fetishistically obsessed with having babies; a different one envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as like being trapped in a scary movie. Interestingly, she met Emma through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her journey, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, instead of traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, stating with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Career Breakthrough

Those who questioned about Sennott then will surely be kicking themselves today. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” development, she seems to have manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she posted content called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she mocked movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about Angelenos managing benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being suspected of being a substance-abusing stealer, and possibly becoming a risky persona non grata). Some could simple to produce a series about internet celebrity that was overly idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. I Love LA does neither, making for a portrait of privileged twentysomething living that’s honest about the mess and the glamour.

Nuanced Portrayal

“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