The performer appears on the online meeting and immediately launches into an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, appearing really remorseful. She is only a couple of minutes behind, she feels compelled to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, during an interview, this is precisely what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s fairly expected. Viewers who know her fearlessly queer and brash project titled Bottoms—which Sennott penned with her creative partner and starred in together with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—will already know that Sennott holds plenty to share, be it about roles, relationships, or the merits of starting a youth fight club. And, once you finish the latest multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries further thoughts on the challenges of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, she represents an honorary member to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott is a fan, citing the show alongside the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for her series, which details the journey of an influencer Tallulah and ally and fledgling representative Maia. Perhaps, the largest spot on the moodboard belonged to the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star succeeding in an often-seedy entertainment industry (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it amid COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The inspiration for I Love LA originated—in part—from firsthand, initially rocky, relocation to LA and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed event for astrology heads. It was an era that saw her understand significant insights, work-wise and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in Connecticut, the star commenced developing and showcasing stand-up while pursuing acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She decided to act independently, performing at amateur nights with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and decidedly) bizarre online content on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on several females fetishistically fixated on having babies; another imagined being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being caught in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her path, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, as opposed to the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Anyone who had doubts regarding Sennott then will surely be kicking themselves now. In what she labels a “astonishingly complete” story, she appears to created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she uploaded a clip called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers managing benefits of digital stardom (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled stealer, and possibly becoming a unreliable outcast). It would be tempting to make a series about internet celebrity that was horribly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at the characters. This show does neither, creating a depiction of privileged young adult life that’s frank about the grot and the shine.
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
