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Rachel Sennott joins the video call and at once starts an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, sounding really regretful. Although she's only slightly behind, she needs to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, in this context, that’s precisely what is ideal to experience. Moreover, it’s quite expected. Viewers who have seen the boldly LGBTQ+ and outspoken project titled Bottoms—which she penned with her creative partner and appeared in together with her friend Ayo Edebiri—would be aware that she has plenty to share, whether about identity, sex, or the pros of creating a teen fight club. Plus, by the end her new eight-part program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she holds additional insights regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as a bridge to younger audiences, on the cusp skilled for bridging millennials and Gen Z).

Guiding Lights and Creative Vision

Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, citing it alongside the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as influences for the project, which follows the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and new talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the biggest influence on creative vision belonged to the HBO series, that program about an emerging celebrity making his way in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it amid the pandemic, became “hooked”, and resolved 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 idea for the series came—partly—from personal, initially difficult, transition to LA and from her astrological phase, a frequently discussed occurrence for enthusiasts. It was a phase that included her understand major truths, work-wise and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Starting Out

Brought up in Connecticut, the star began developing and showcasing humor while pursuing theatre 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.”

Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at live shows with Edebiri and sharing uproarious (and very) unconventional online content online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women obsessively drawn to motherhood; a different one envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being caught in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ultimately starring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her path, she says, has been peers giving her a shot, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she confirms, adding with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Career Breakthrough

Individuals who were skeptical about her earlier will certainly be feeling foolish today. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” development, she appears to achieved the perfect project. Previously she uploaded content named “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents juggling benefits of internet fame (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being accused of being a intoxicated criminal, and perhaps becoming a unreliable outcast). It would be tempting to produce a program about online fame that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that belittled at those depicted. This show avoids both, creating a portrait of privileged millennial life that’s candid about the mess and the glamour.

Nuanced Portrayal

“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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