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The star joins the video call and at once launches into an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming truly regretful. Although she's only slightly behind, she wants to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, for a writer, this is exactly what you want to encounter. Besides, it’s fairly expected. Those who have seen the boldly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and starred in together with her friend The Bear’s standout—can already know that Sennott holds plenty to discuss, whether on identity, relationships, or the pros of starting a teen combat group. And, by the end her latest eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star has further perspectives on the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she is a relatable figure for this generation, a tale-end millennial skilled for bridging both generations).

Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction

Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott is an admirer, referencing it together with the HBO hit, Insecure and Atlanta as inspirations for the project, which details the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also new talent manager Maia. However, the largest presence on concept went to Entourage, the show depicting an emerging Hollywood star making his way in a gritty LA scene (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott began viewing it during lockdown, became “captivated”, and decided to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she notes. The concept for I Love LA came—partly—from firsthand, at first difficult, transition to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about occurrence for followers. It was an era that saw her understand significant truths, in her career and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “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…”

Humble Origins

Raised in Connecticut, Sennott commenced creating and acting stand-up while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “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. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

She decided to act independently, taking the stage at live shows with Ayo and sharing uproarious (and very) unconventional online content on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, centered on characters intensely drawn to having babies; a different one imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being caught in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her career, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, stating humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”

Manifesting Dreams

Those who were skeptical regarding her earlier will surely be kicking themselves today. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she appears to manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she shared a clip titled “it’s LA” on social media, in which she mocked movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a show about LA residents managing advantages of online celebrity (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your associate being suspected of being a substance-abusing thief, and possibly becoming a unreliable pariah). Some could tempting to make a show about online fame that was extremely aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at its subjects. The series does neither, making for a portrait of privileged twentysomething life that’s frank about the chaos and the glamour.

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