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The star joins the video call and right away begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, appearing really apologetic. She is only a bit late, she wants to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, during an interview, this is precisely what you want to experience. Moreover, it’s fairly predictable. Anyone familiar with the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—which she penned with the director and starred in with collaborator the talented actress—would be aware that Sennott has plenty to say, be it about roles, relationships, or the pros of creating a high-school fight club. And, once you finish her new eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that she carries additional insights regarding the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents a bridge for this generation, straddling eras skilled for bridging millennials and Gen Z).

Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach

Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being an admirer, naming it alongside Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as guides for her series, which details the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and aspiring talent manager Sennott’s character. However, the largest presence on creative vision went to Entourage, the HBO sitcom focusing on an up-and-coming A-list actor making his way in a gritty entertainment industry (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “captivated”, and resolved 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 notes. The inspiration for the series came—in part—from firsthand, at first difficult, move to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about event for astrology heads. That period marked a phase that involved her understand some big insights, in her career and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Starting Out

Raised in Connecticut, the star started creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

She decided to act independently, appearing at open mics with Ayo and uploading hilarious (and decidedly) weird online content on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed a group of women intensely drawn to pregnancy; a different one imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a horror film. Interestingly, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her path, she notes, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, rather than the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, continuing with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”

Rising Success

Anyone who had doubts about Sennott then will certainly be regretting it now. As part of she calls a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she has created her dream vehicle. Previously she shared a clip named “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about Angelenos managing benefits of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your client being labeled as being a drug-addled stealer, and possibly becoming a unreliable persona non grata). Some could tempting to produce a series about online fame that was horribly idealized—or, more problematic, one that mocked at the characters. The series steers clear of each, creating a representation of privileged twentysomething existence that’s candid about the mess and the appeal.

Empathetic Approach

“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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