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Rachel Sennott joins the video call and right away launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming really apologetic. She is only a couple of minutes late, she needs to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, in this context, this is precisely what one hopes to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty expected. Anyone who have seen her unapologetically queer and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with her creative partner and appeared in alongside close companion The Bear’s standout—would be aware that Sennott possesses a lot to say, ranging from on gender, relationships, or the appeal of forming a youth combat group. Plus, once you finish her latest eight-part program I Love LA, it is clear that she has even more insights about the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she represents an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras adept for straddling millennials and Gen Z).

Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction

Parallels to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott is an admirer, naming the show in addition to Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which tracks the struggles of online personality Tallulah and her friend who is also aspiring talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the most significant spot on the moodboard belonged to the HBO series, the HBO sitcom about an emerging A-list actor making his way in an often-seedy entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it during COVID-19, became “hooked”, and decided 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 notes. The idea for the series came—partly—from personal, originally fractious, move to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about event for astrology heads. It was a phase that involved her understand significant life lessons, professionally and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “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 commenced developing and showcasing stand-up while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

She took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and distinctly) bizarre comedy videos digitally. One, Baby Cult, followed several females obsessively drawn to pregnancy; another imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being caught in a scary movie. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a religious event with shades of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her journey, she says, has been peers supporting her, as opposed to traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she confirms, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”

Manifesting Dreams

Those who had doubts regarding her previously will likely be kicking themselves today. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” development, she seems to have created an ideal role. In 2019 she posted a clip named “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a show about city dwellers managing benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being suspected of being a intoxicated criminal, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). Some could simple to produce a program about internet celebrity that was horribly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at its subjects. I Love LA avoids both, making for a representation of affluent twentysomething life that’s honest about the mess and the appeal.

Nuanced Portrayal

“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