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Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and right away starts an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, seeming truly apologetic. Although she's only slightly behind, she feels compelled to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, in this context, this is precisely what you want to encounter. Additionally, it’s quite predictable. Those who have seen her boldly openly gay and brash film Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with the director and starred in together with her friend the talented actress—would understand that she holds plenty to share, be it on roles, sex, or the pros of creating a teen brawl society. Plus, by the end her new seasonal program titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds further thoughts regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott is a bridge for this generation, on the cusp with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).

Inspirations and Artistic Direction

The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott is enthusiastic, naming it alongside the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which tracks the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also new agent Maia. However, the most significant influence on the moodboard was reserved for Entourage, that program about an emerging celebrity succeeding in a corrupt entertainment industry (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it amid the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and decided to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The inspiration for I Love LA emerged—in part—from personal, initially difficult, transition to LA and from the cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for followers. It was an era that involved her grasp major life lessons, professionally and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” 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 resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Humble Origins

Growing up in the East Coast, Sennott began developing and showcasing comedy while pursuing theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

She seized control, appearing at live shows with Ayo and uploading uproarious (and distinctly) bizarre comedy videos online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed characters obsessively fixated on having babies; a different one imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as like being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and eventually starring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a religious event with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she explains, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Rising Success

Anyone who questioned regarding her then will likely be feeling foolish currently. Through she describes as a “astonishingly complete” story, she has created an ideal role. A few years back she shared a clip named on LA life on the internet, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a comedy about Angelenos managing benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being suspected of being a intoxicated criminal, and potentially becoming a risky persona non grata). One might tempting to create a program about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. The series steers clear of each, resulting in a depiction of advantaged twentysomething life that’s candid about the grot and the shine.

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 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