🔗 Share this article

Rachel Sennott joins the video call and immediately launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, appearing genuinely remorseful. Despite being only a bit behind, she wants to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s precisely what is ideal to experience. Moreover, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone who know the boldly LGBTQ+ and outspoken film Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in with close companion Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that Sennott possesses plenty to share, ranging from on identity, sex, or the pros of forming a youth combat group. Furthermore, once you finish her new eight-part HBO series I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries additional insights on the challenges of modern youth (As a millennial, Sennott is a relatable figure of the gang, straddling eras skilled for connecting different age groups).

Inspirations and Artistic Direction

The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being an admirer, citing the show alongside the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as inspirations for her series, which details the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also new representative portrayed by Sennott. However, the largest influence on creative vision went to Entourage, the HBO sitcom focusing on an up-and-coming Hollywood star succeeding in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it amid lockdown, became “captivated”, and chose to add a fresh perspective on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The concept for I Love LA originated—in part—from personal, initially difficult, move to LA and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about phenomenon for enthusiasts. It was a time that saw her grasp major insights, professionally and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Starting Out

Raised in New England, Sennott commenced developing and showcasing stand-up while enrolled in theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “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, performing at amateur nights with her friend and posting uproarious (and very) unconventional online content online. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted several females fetishistically obsessed with pregnancy; a different one portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being trapped in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ultimately starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she notes, has been people her own age giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she repeats, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Career Breakthrough

Anyone who questioned about her previously will certainly be regretting it now. In what she calls a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. A few years back she shared a video called about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a comedy about LA residents balancing advantages of internet fame (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable persona non grata). Some could easy to create a series about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that punched down at the characters. This show steers clear of each, making for a depiction of advantaged young adult existence that’s honest about the mess and the appeal.

Balanced Perspective

“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