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The performer joins the digital interview and immediately starts an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, sounding really apologetic. She is only a bit behind, she wants to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, in this context, that’s just what is ideal to hear. Besides, it’s fairly predictable. Anyone who have seen her unapologetically queer and brash movie titled Bottoms—which Sennott penned with the director and appeared in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will already know that she possesses much to discuss, whether on roles, sex, or the pros of forming a youth combat group. Furthermore, by the end her new eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that she holds even more thoughts on the struggles of young adulthood (At 30, she represents a bridge of the gang, on the cusp adept for straddling millennials and Gen Z).

Guiding Lights and Creative Vision

Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and Sennott admits to being an admirer, naming the show alongside the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for the project, which tracks the struggles of online personality Tallulah and close companion and fledgling representative Maia. Perhaps, the largest spot on concept belonged to Entourage, the HBO sitcom about an emerging Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy LA scene (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and resolved 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 I Love LA emerged—to some extent—from personal, originally rocky, relocation to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for astrology heads. That period marked a time that saw her learn some big life lessons, in her career and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Early Beginnings

Growing up in Connecticut, Sennott started writing and performing comedy while studying theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

Sennott decided to act independently, performing at open mics with Edebiri and posting hilarious (and distinctly) weird online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively drawn to having babies; a different one envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being stuck in a thriller. By chance, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ended up starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a religious event with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, continuing humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Rising Success

Those who questioned about Sennott earlier will likely be regretting it currently. As part of she calls a “wild, full-circle” story, she appears to created an ideal role. A few years back she uploaded content named on LA life on social media, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a series about Angelenos balancing advantages of internet fame (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being accused of being a intoxicated stealer, and possibly becoming a risky outcast). It would be tempting to produce a series about digital influence that was horribly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that mocked at its subjects. This show avoids both, creating a portrait of affluent millennial living that’s candid 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 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