Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and immediately launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming genuinely apologetic. She is only slightly late, she feels compelled to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, in this context, that’s exactly what one hopes to experience. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Anyone familiar with her fearlessly queer and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—that Sennott penned with her creative partner and starred in together with collaborator The Bear’s standout—would already know that she possesses much to discuss, ranging from about gender, intimacy, or the appeal of creating a high-school brawl society. Furthermore, once you finish her new seasonal show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star holds additional insights about the challenges of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, she serves as a relatable figure to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Inspirations and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges a fan, referencing the show alongside the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as guides for I Love LA, which details the travails of a social media star Tallulah and her friend who is also fledgling agent Maia. Perhaps, the most significant presence on creative vision was reserved for Entourage, the show about an up-and-coming celebrity navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She started watching it during COVID-19, became “hooked”, and chose to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The concept for I Love LA emerged—partly—from personal, initially rocky, relocation to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a frequently discussed phenomenon for followers. This represented a time that saw her understand major life lessons, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Raised in New England, the star started creating and acting comedy while pursuing acting 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.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She seized control, performing at open mics with Ayo and sharing hysterical (and very) bizarre online content on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters obsessively drawn to pregnancy; a different one imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a horror film. Interestingly, she connected with Emma through the university’s film scene and eventually featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a tense film set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her career, she says, has been peers offering opportunities, instead of established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who were skeptical regarding Sennott previously will likely be regretting it now. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” story, she seems to have achieved her dream vehicle. Previously she posted a video called “it’s LA” on social media, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a comedy about Angelenos juggling the perks of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being labeled as being a drug-addled criminal, and possibly becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be simple to create a series about online fame that was horribly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that mocked at its subjects. I Love LA does neither, making for a depiction of affluent millennial existence that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.
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
