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The star appears on the video call and right away starts an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding truly remorseful. She is only a couple of minutes late, she feels compelled to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, for a writer, this is just what one hopes to encounter. Moreover, it’s quite unsurprising. Anyone who know the fearlessly openly gay and outspoken project Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in together with her friend The Bear’s standout—will be aware that Sennott possesses much to say, be it on gender, relationships, or the appeal of starting a teen combat group. And, after watching her new multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries even more insights on the challenges of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she is a bridge to younger audiences, on the cusp adept for bridging millennials and Gen Z).

Influences and Creative Vision

The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is a fan, citing it alongside the HBO hit, Insecure and Atlanta as influences for the project, which follows the journey of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also aspiring agent Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the biggest presence on the moodboard went to the HBO series, that program focusing on an up-and-coming Hollywood star making his way in an often-seedy LA scene (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it during lockdown, became “captivated”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The inspiration for I Love LA originated—to some extent—from personal, initially rocky, relocation to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about event for followers. It was a phase that included her grasp some big truths, 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…”

Humble Origins

Brought up in New England, the star began writing and performing comedy while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “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. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

She seized control, performing at amateur nights with Edebiri and posting hysterical (and decidedly) weird comedy videos digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted several females obsessively drawn to pregnancy; a different one portrayed working at the brand Hollister as similar to being stuck in a scary movie. Interestingly, she met Seligman through NYU’s movie community and eventually starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she explains, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who were skeptical regarding Sennott then will certainly be kicking themselves currently. As part of she calls a “wild, full-circle” story, she has achieved the perfect project. Previously she shared content titled about Los Angeles online, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a comedy about Angelenos balancing benefits of digital stardom (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your friend being labeled as being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). Some could simple to produce a series about online fame that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that mocked at the characters. I Love LA does neither, creating a portrait of advantaged millennial existence that’s candid about the mess 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 comments. “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