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Rachel Sennott enters the video call and right away launches into an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming truly remorseful. Despite being only slightly behind, she wants to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s just what you want to encounter. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone familiar with her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—that Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside her friend The Bear’s standout—would be aware that Sennott possesses a lot to say, whether on gender, intimacy, or the merits of creating a high-school fight club. Plus, once you finish the new eight-part show I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries further insights regarding the struggles of young adulthood (As a millennial, she represents a relatable figure to younger audiences, straddling eras adept for bridging millennials and Gen Z).

Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach

Parallels to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott is a fan, citing it alongside the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as influences for her series, which details the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also aspiring agent portrayed by Sennott. However, the largest influence on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star succeeding in a corrupt entertainment industry (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott discovered it during lockdown, became “captivated”, and decided to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The inspiration for I Love LA emerged—partly—from her own, originally rocky, move to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a popular event for enthusiasts. This represented a phase that included her understand significant life lessons, work-wise and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” 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 …”

Starting Out

Brought up in the East Coast, the star started developing and showcasing stand-up while studying theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “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?”

Sennott took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and uploading hilarious (and very) weird skits online. One, Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively drawn to pregnancy; a different one portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as like being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a religious event with echoes of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she explains, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, instead of traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she repeats, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Career Breakthrough

Anyone who had doubts about Sennott then will surely be feeling foolish currently. As part of she calls a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has manifested an ideal role. Previously she uploaded a clip called “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a series about LA residents juggling advantages of online celebrity (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being labeled as being a substance-abusing thief, and potentially becoming a risky persona non grata). Some could tempting to make a program about digital influence that was overly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA avoids both, creating a representation of advantaged millennial existence that’s frank about the chaos and the glamour.

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 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