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The star enters the video call and at once launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, seeming truly regretful. Despite being only a bit late, she wants to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s precisely what one hopes to hear. Besides, it’s quite unsurprising. Anyone familiar with the fearlessly queer and brash film Bottoms—that she co-wrote with the director and starred in together with collaborator the talented actress—can be aware that she possesses plenty to say, be it on roles, sex, or the merits of creating a youth fight club. Furthermore, once you finish her latest seasonal show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star holds additional thoughts about the challenges of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott represents a bridge of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for bridging both generations).

Influences and Storytelling Approach

Parallels to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott is a fan, naming the show together with the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as guides for I Love LA, which follows the struggles of online personality Tallulah and ally and new representative portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the largest influence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, the HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in a gritty entertainment industry (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it amid the pandemic, became “captivated”, and chose 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 says. The inspiration for the series came—partly—from her own, at first fractious, transition to LA and from the cosmic event, a frequently discussed phenomenon for followers. This represented a time that saw her grasp some big truths, professionally and personally. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” 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

Brought up in the East Coast, the star started developing and showcasing humor while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and uploading uproarious (and very) unconventional comedy videos online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed characters fetishistically fixated on motherhood; another portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a thriller. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up featuring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her path, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who had doubts regarding Sennott then will likely be regretting it now. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” development, she seems to have manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she uploaded content called “it’s LA” on social media, in which she mocked film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers juggling advantages of online celebrity (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being accused of being a substance-abusing thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). It would be simple to make a series about internet celebrity that was overly idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, making for a depiction of advantaged twentysomething life that’s candid about the grot and the appeal.

Empathetic Approach

“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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