The star appears on the online meeting and right away starts an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, appearing truly regretful. She is only a couple of minutes behind, she needs to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s just what one hopes to encounter. Moreover, it’s fairly expected. Those who know her unapologetically queer and brash project Bottoms—which Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will understand that she has plenty to say, ranging from on gender, relationships, or the merits of forming a youth fight club. And, after watching the recent eight-part HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star has even more insights regarding the darker side of modern youth (As a millennial, she is a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp adept for straddling both generations).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and Sennott is enthusiastic, citing the show in addition to Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and the innovative program as inspirations for I Love LA, which details the travails of a social media star Tallulah and her friend and new representative portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the biggest presence on creative vision belonged to the HBO series, the program about a rising celebrity making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The concept for I Love LA originated—in part—from personal, originally difficult, relocation to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. It was a time that involved her grasp some big life lessons, professionally and individually. “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…”
Starting Out
Brought up in the East Coast, the star started creating and acting comedy while studying theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and uploading hysterical (and decidedly) unconventional online content online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women intensely fixated on pregnancy; another envisioned working at the brand Hollister as akin to being trapped in a thriller. By chance, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, stating with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who had doubts regarding Sennott earlier will likely be kicking themselves currently. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she appears to achieved the perfect project. Previously she shared a video called “it’s LA” on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about city dwellers juggling the perks of digital stardom (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being accused of being a substance-abusing thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). One might tempting to make a program about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, worse, one that punched down at those depicted. I Love LA avoids both, making for a depiction of advantaged young adult existence that’s candid about the grot and the appeal.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” she comments. “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
