The actress and writer exploring her side-splitting series about that chaotic appeal of Gen Z lifestyle

Rachel Sennott joins the video call and immediately begins an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding really apologetic. She is only a couple of minutes behind, she needs to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, during an interview, that’s exactly what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s quite expected. Viewers who know the unapologetically openly gay and outspoken movie Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with the director and featured in together with close companion the talented actress—will already know that she possesses much to say, whether on roles, intimacy, or the appeal of starting a high-school combat group. And, after watching the recent multi-episode show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star holds further insights on the challenges of modern youth (At 30, Sennott serves as an honorary member of the gang, a tale-end millennial with a knack for straddling millennials and Gen Z).

Influences and Artistic Direction

The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is an admirer, referencing it alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as influences for I Love LA, which details the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also fledgling representative portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the biggest influence on creative vision belonged to Entourage, the HBO sitcom about an emerging Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it amid COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and decided 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 notes. The concept for this project emerged—partly—from personal, originally fractious, relocation to Tinseltown and from her cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for astrology heads. It was an era that included her understand major insights, in her career and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Starting Out

Raised in Connecticut, the star commenced writing and performing stand-up while studying theatre at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

Sennott took matters into her own hands, appearing at live shows with her friend and posting hilarious (and distinctly) weird skits digitally. One, Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively obsessed with having babies; another envisioned being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being trapped in a thriller. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her journey, she explains, has been people her own age giving her a shot, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she confirms, continuing with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Rising Success

Anyone who were skeptical regarding her earlier will certainly be kicking themselves now. In what she labels a “wild, full-circle” story, she seems to have created the perfect project. A few years back she uploaded content titled on LA life on social media, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about Angelenos balancing benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). One might simple to make a show about internet celebrity that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. This show steers clear of each, creating a portrait of privileged young adult existence that’s candid about the chaos and the appeal.

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 says. “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