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The star joins the digital interview and right away starts an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, sounding genuinely remorseful. Despite being only slightly delayed, she wants to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, during an interview, this is precisely what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone who have seen the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with the director and featured in alongside her friend the talented actress—can understand that she holds plenty to discuss, whether on identity, intimacy, or the pros of starting a high-school combat group. And, once you finish her latest eight-part show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star carries additional perspectives regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as an honorary member to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial skilled for connecting different age groups).

Inspirations and Artistic Direction

Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being a fan, citing the show alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Atlanta as guides for I Love LA, which follows the travails of a social media star Tallulah and ally who is also new talent manager Maia. Notably, the largest influence on creative vision was reserved for the popular sitcom, that show about a rising A-list actor making his way in an often-seedy LA scene (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it during COVID-19, became “hooked”, and chose to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she notes. The concept for the series came—partly—from personal, initially difficult, relocation to LA and from her saturn return, a frequently discussed event for astrology heads. It was a time that saw her understand some big life lessons, in her career and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Early Beginnings

Growing up in Connecticut, the star commenced creating and acting comedy while enrolled in performance at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” 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 sharing hilarious (and very) bizarre online content on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted several females obsessively obsessed with motherhood; another imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being caught in a thriller. By chance, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a religious event with echoes of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, rather than traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, continuing humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Career Breakthrough

Individuals who had doubts about her earlier will surely be kicking themselves today. Through she calls a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she seems to have manifested the perfect project. A few years back she uploaded content named “it’s LA” on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers juggling benefits of internet fame (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being labeled as being a intoxicated criminal, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be easy to create a series about internet celebrity that was overly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA avoids both, creating a portrait of advantaged young adult living that’s candid about the grot and the shine.

Nuanced Portrayal

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