The performer enters the digital interview and right away begins an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, appearing genuinely apologetic. Despite being only a bit late, she needs to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, for a writer, this is just what one hopes to hear. Besides, it’s pretty expected. Viewers who have seen the boldly queer and brash film Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and appeared in with collaborator The Bear’s standout—will already know that Sennott possesses a lot to share, ranging from on gender, intimacy, or the appeal of starting a high-school brawl society. Plus, by the end the new eight-part show I Love LA, it is clear that she carries additional insights on the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott is an honorary member to younger audiences, straddling eras skilled for connecting different age groups).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Parallels to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, naming it alongside the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as inspirations for the project, which follows the journey of online personality Tallulah and her friend and fledgling representative Maia. Perhaps, the largest influence on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom focusing on an up-and-coming A-list actor making his way in a gritty Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to add a fresh perspective 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 explains. The idea for this project emerged—in part—from firsthand, initially rocky, relocation to Tinseltown and from her astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented a time that involved her understand significant life lessons, work-wise and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Early Beginnings
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott commenced developing and showcasing stand-up while enrolled in acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at live shows with Edebiri and uploading hilarious (and decidedly) unconventional online content online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on several females obsessively obsessed with pregnancy; another imagined working at the brand Hollister as akin to being stuck in a thriller. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ultimately featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a religious event with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her career, she says, has been peers supporting her, rather than the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Individuals who had doubts about Sennott then will surely be kicking themselves today. As part of she labels a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have created an ideal role. In 2019 she posted content titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she lampooned film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a comedy about city dwellers juggling advantages of online celebrity (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your client being suspected of being a intoxicated stealer, and perhaps becoming a unreliable persona non grata). It would be tempting to make a program about digital influence that was extremely aspirational—or, more problematic, one that mocked at its subjects. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a depiction of affluent millennial life that’s candid about the mess and the glamour.
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 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
