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The star enters the video call and immediately begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, seeming truly apologetic. Although she's only slightly behind, she needs to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s exactly what one hopes to hear. Moreover, it’s quite predictable. Those familiar with her boldly queer and brash project Bottoms—that she co-wrote with the director and starred in together with collaborator The Bear’s standout—will be aware that she possesses a lot to say, whether about identity, intimacy, or the appeal of forming a high-school brawl society. And, by the end her recent seasonal show I Love LA, viewers realize that the star carries even more insights about the darker side of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott represents a bridge to younger audiences, on the cusp skilled for bridging both generations).

Influences and Storytelling Approach

The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being a fan, citing it together with Sex and the City, Insecure and Atlanta as guides for the project, which follows the journey of online personality Tallulah and ally who is also new talent manager Maia. Notably, the most significant spot on creative vision belonged to Entourage, that program focusing on a rising Hollywood star succeeding in a corrupt Hollywood (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott began viewing it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, 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 concept for the series emerged—in part—from her own, at first rocky, move to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a popular event for enthusiasts. That period marked an era that saw her learn significant truths, professionally and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Starting Out

Brought up in the East Coast, the star started writing and performing comedy while enrolled in performance 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. “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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

She took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with her friend and uploading hilarious (and distinctly) weird online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted characters fetishistically drawn to motherhood; another envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a horror film. By chance, she met Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her journey, she notes, has been peers supporting her, rather than traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she repeats, continuing humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”

Manifesting Dreams

Those who had doubts regarding Sennott then will certainly be kicking themselves today. In what she labels a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she appears to achieved the perfect project. Previously she shared content titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a show about city dwellers juggling advantages of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your client being accused of being a substance-abusing thief, and possibly becoming a unreliable outcast). Some could easy to make a series about digital influence that was horribly idealized—or, more problematic, one that punched down at its subjects. I Love LA does neither, making for a representation of advantaged young adult living 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 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