🔗 Share this article

Rachel Sennott appears on the online meeting and at once starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, appearing really remorseful. Despite being only slightly late, she wants to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, for a writer, this is exactly what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s pretty predictable. Anyone who have seen her fearlessly openly gay and brash project titled Bottoms—that she co-wrote with her creative partner and featured in together with close companion The Bear’s standout—will be aware that Sennott holds plenty to discuss, be it about roles, relationships, or the appeal of starting a teen fight club. Furthermore, after watching the latest multi-episode show I Love LA, it is clear that she has further insights regarding the challenges of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott serves as an honorary member for this generation, a tale-end millennial adept for connecting different age groups).

Guiding Lights and Creative Vision

Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being an admirer, referencing it alongside the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as inspirations for I Love LA, which follows the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also fledgling agent Maia. Notably, the biggest influence on concept belonged to Entourage, that program depicting a rising celebrity navigating in an often-seedy Hollywood (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “captivated”, and decided to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.

“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The idea for this project came—partly—from personal, initially rocky, move to LA and from her saturn return, a popular occurrence for followers. This represented a time that saw her grasp major life lessons, in her career and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “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

Raised in New England, the star commenced writing and performing stand-up while studying performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

She decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with Ayo and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) unconventional comedy videos digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women intensely obsessed with having babies; another imagined being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being caught in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she met Emma through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she notes, has been peers supporting her, as opposed to the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Career Breakthrough

Individuals who questioned regarding her then will surely be feeling foolish currently. Through she describes as a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she posted a video titled on LA life on the internet, in which she lampooned movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers managing the perks of internet fame (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being suspected of being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could simple to produce a program about internet celebrity that was overly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at those depicted. This show steers clear of each, resulting in a depiction of affluent twentysomething living that’s candid about the grot and the shine.

Empathetic Approach

“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