The performer enters the video call and immediately launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, seeming truly apologetic. She is only slightly behind, she wants to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is exactly what is ideal to hear. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone familiar with her boldly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—which Sennott penned with the director and featured in together with collaborator the talented actress—would be aware that Sennott has a lot to share, whether about roles, sex, or the merits of forming a youth fight club. Plus, once you finish the new seasonal program titled I Love LA, it is clear that she carries additional thoughts regarding the darker side of modern youth (At 30, she represents a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp skilled for straddling different age groups).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott is enthusiastic, naming the show in addition to the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which follows the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and her friend who is also aspiring representative Maia. However, the most significant presence on creative vision went to the HBO series, the HBO sitcom focusing on an up-and-coming A-list actor succeeding in a corrupt entertainment industry (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it amid lockdown, became “hooked”, and decided to add a fresh perspective 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 I Love LA emerged—in part—from her own, at first rocky, move to LA and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. This represented a phase that involved her learn some big truths, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” 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 was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Growing up in the East Coast, Sennott commenced writing and performing comedy while studying acting at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at open mics with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and decidedly) unconventional comedy videos digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted several females fetishistically obsessed with motherhood; a different one imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a funeral gathering with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her path, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, instead of the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, adding with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who had doubts regarding her previously will surely be kicking themselves currently. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she appears to manifested her dream vehicle. In 2019 she shared a clip named about Los Angeles on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a series about LA residents balancing benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). It would be tempting to create a show about internet celebrity that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that belittled at the characters. I Love LA avoids both, creating a representation of advantaged young adult living that’s frank about the mess and the appeal.
Nuanced Portrayal
“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
