Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and immediately starts an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, seeming truly apologetic. She is only slightly delayed, she wants to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s exactly what is ideal to hear. Moreover, it’s fairly predictable. Anyone who have seen her boldly queer and brash project Bottoms—that she penned with the director and appeared in together with collaborator the talented actress—can be aware that she has a lot to say, be it on identity, intimacy, or the pros of forming a high-school brawl society. Plus, once you finish the new eight-part show I Love LA, it is clear that she holds even more insights about the challenges of young adulthood (At 30, Sennott serves as an honorary member to younger audiences, straddling eras with a knack for bridging both generations).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, referencing it in addition to the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as guides for the project, which details the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and aspiring representative portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the most significant presence on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, that program depicting an emerging Hollywood star succeeding in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it amid the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and decided 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 her own, initially difficult, relocation to LA and from her astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for followers. It was a phase that involved her understand some big truths, professionally and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Humble Origins
Brought up in Connecticut, the star started writing and performing stand-up 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. 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, performing at amateur nights with Ayo and posting hilarious (and decidedly) weird online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed a group of women intensely obsessed with having babies; a different one portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as like being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she says, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, rather than traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, adding amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who were skeptical regarding Sennott then will certainly be kicking themselves currently. Through she labels a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she has created the perfect project. A few years back she shared content called “it’s LA” on social media, in which she lampooned movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents managing benefits of online celebrity (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). It would be simple to create a show about online fame that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that belittled at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, resulting in a depiction of privileged millennial living that’s frank about the chaos and the appeal.
Balanced Perspective
“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
