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Rachel Sennott appears on the online meeting and immediately launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, seeming genuinely remorseful. Despite being only a couple of minutes late, she needs to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is exactly what one hopes to encounter. Additionally, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers familiar with the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken film Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with her creative partner and featured in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—will already know that she holds a lot to say, be it about roles, sex, or the merits of forming a youth combat group. And, by the end her latest multi-episode show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries even more insights regarding the struggles of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as a bridge to younger audiences, on the cusp adept for bridging different age groups).

Influences and Storytelling Approach

Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, naming the show alongside the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as guides for her series, which tracks the journey of an influencer Tallulah and ally and fledgling talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the most significant influence on the moodboard belonged to the HBO series, the HBO sitcom focusing on a rising celebrity making his way in an often-seedy LA scene (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it amid lockdown, became “hooked”, and decided to put her own twist 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 inspiration for I Love LA came—in part—from firsthand, at first rocky, relocation to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a popular event for followers. This represented an era that involved her learn significant life lessons, in her career and individually. “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. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Starting Out

Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott commenced creating and acting comedy while pursuing acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

She decided to act independently, appearing at open mics with her friend and posting hysterical (and very) bizarre online content digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women intensely fixated on pregnancy; a different one portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being caught in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a religious event with echoes of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she says, has been peers offering opportunities, instead of traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, adding humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who questioned about Sennott previously will certainly be kicking themselves currently. As part of she labels a “wild, full-circle” development, she seems to have created her dream vehicle. Previously she uploaded a video named on LA life on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents managing the perks of online celebrity (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being suspected of being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). Some could simple to make a show about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at the characters. This show does neither, resulting in a depiction of affluent twentysomething existence that’s candid about the chaos and the shine.

Empathetic Approach

“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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