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The performer appears on the video call and at once launches into an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, seeming truly regretful. Although she's only a bit delayed, she feels compelled 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!” Luckily, in this context, that’s precisely what one hopes to experience. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Those who know the boldly LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—that Sennott penned with the director and featured in together with collaborator The Bear’s standout—will already know that she has plenty to share, whether about roles, intimacy, or the pros of starting a high-school fight club. And, by the end the new eight-part HBO series I Love LA, viewers realize that the star has additional perspectives on the challenges of modern youth (As a millennial, she serves as a bridge to younger audiences, on the cusp adept for bridging millennials and Gen Z).

Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach

Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, referencing the show alongside Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as guides for I Love LA, which tracks the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and aspiring talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the largest influence on the moodboard belonged to the HBO series, that show about an emerging A-list actor making his way in a gritty Hollywood (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it during lockdown, became “hooked”, and resolved to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The concept for the series emerged—partly—from firsthand, originally rocky, relocation to LA and from her astrological phase, a popular occurrence for followers. It was an era that saw her learn major truths, work-wise and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Early Beginnings

Growing up in the East Coast, the star began creating and acting humor while studying acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

Sennott decided to act independently, taking the stage at live shows with her friend and sharing hilarious (and distinctly) unconventional skits on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively obsessed with motherhood; a different one envisioned working at the brand Hollister as akin to being caught in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately appearing in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her journey, she says, has been people her own age supporting her, as opposed to traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, continuing humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”

Rising Success

Those who questioned about her earlier will likely be kicking themselves today. In what she labels a “incredibly circular” development, she seems to have created an ideal role. In 2019 she uploaded a clip called “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a comedy about LA residents managing the perks of internet fame (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a substance-abusing stealer, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). One might easy to create a series about online fame that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA steers clear of each, resulting in a representation of privileged millennial life that’s frank about the grot and the appeal.

Empathetic Approach

“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