🔗 Share this article

The performer joins the digital interview and immediately launches into an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming truly regretful. Despite being only a bit late, she needs to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, in this context, this is exactly what is ideal to hear. Moreover, it’s quite unsurprising. Those who have seen her fearlessly openly gay and outspoken movie Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with her creative partner and appeared in together with close companion the talented actress—would already know that Sennott has a lot to discuss, whether on gender, relationships, or the appeal of creating a youth brawl society. Furthermore, by the end the recent seasonal HBO series I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star carries further perspectives on the darker side of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she represents an honorary member to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for bridging millennials and Gen Z).

Inspirations and Creative Vision

The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott is an admirer, referencing the show in addition to the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as guides for her series, which follows the journey of online personality Tallulah and ally who is also fledgling agent portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the biggest influence on concept went to the HBO series, that program depicting an emerging Hollywood star succeeding in a corrupt LA scene (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott began viewing it amid lockdown, became “captivated”, and chose to add a fresh perspective 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 explains. The idea for I Love LA came—partly—from her own, at first rocky, move to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed occurrence for astrology heads. That period marked a phase that saw her grasp major insights, in her career and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Starting Out

Raised in Connecticut, Sennott began writing and performing comedy while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

She decided to act independently, taking the stage at amateur nights with her friend and sharing hilarious (and distinctly) bizarre skits digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely drawn to having babies; a different one envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being stuck in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually starring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the intense thriller. The central motif of her career, she notes, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, rather than traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, continuing amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Rising Success

Anyone who had doubts regarding her earlier will likely be regretting it now. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has achieved the perfect project. Previously she shared content called about Los Angeles online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a show about city dwellers balancing benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your client being suspected of being a intoxicated criminal, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). It would be simple to produce a series about digital influence that was horribly glamorous—or, worse, one that belittled at those depicted. I Love LA avoids both, resulting in a portrait of privileged millennial existence that’s candid about the mess and the shine.

Nuanced Portrayal

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