The star joins the online meeting and immediately launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, sounding truly remorseful. Although she's only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s just what one hopes to hear. Besides, it’s pretty predictable. Those who have seen the boldly openly gay and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—which Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and featured in alongside close companion the talented actress—would already know that Sennott holds much to say, be it about identity, intimacy, or the pros of forming a teen fight club. Plus, by the end her latest multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries further perspectives about the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott represents an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras adept for straddling different age groups).
Inspirations and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being a fan, citing the show in addition to Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for I Love LA, which follows the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also new representative Maia. However, the most significant presence on creative vision went to Entourage, that HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming A-list actor succeeding in a gritty Hollywood (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it during lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The idea for the series originated—to some extent—from personal, initially fractious, move to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for followers. It was a time that saw her learn some big life lessons, professionally and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “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
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott began developing and showcasing stand-up while pursuing performance at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”
She seized control, taking the stage at live shows with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and distinctly) weird online content online. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed several females obsessively fixated on motherhood; a different one envisioned working at the brand Hollister as like being stuck in a thriller. By chance, she met Emma through campus film circles and ultimately starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with echoes of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her journey, she notes, has been peers giving her a shot, instead of the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Those who questioned about her then will certainly be kicking themselves now. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” development, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. Previously she shared a clip named about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she parodied movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about city dwellers balancing advantages of internet fame (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a intoxicated thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable outcast). Some could tempting to produce a show about digital influence that was extremely aspirational—or, more problematic, one that mocked at the characters. This show does neither, resulting in a depiction of privileged twentysomething life that’s candid about the mess 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 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
