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The star joins the video call and right away launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding truly apologetic. Despite being only a bit 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!” Thankfully, in this context, this is just what you want to encounter. Besides, it’s quite predictable. Anyone who have seen her boldly openly gay and outspoken movie titled Bottoms—that Sennott penned with her creative partner and appeared in alongside close companion Ayo Edebiri—can already know that she holds much to say, be it about roles, intimacy, or the appeal of creating a youth fight club. Plus, after watching her latest eight-part program I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star holds even more insights regarding the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott serves as a bridge for this generation, straddling eras with a knack for connecting both generations).

Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction

Parallels to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being a fan, naming the show together with the HBO hit, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as guides for I Love LA, which details the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also new agent Maia. However, the most significant spot on the moodboard was reserved for the popular sitcom, the show depicting a rising Hollywood star navigating in a corrupt LA scene (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She started watching it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and decided to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she notes. The idea for I Love LA emerged—partly—from personal, initially rocky, move to LA and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about phenomenon for enthusiasts. That period marked a phase that involved her understand significant insights, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Starting Out

Growing up in New England, the star commenced creating and acting comedy while pursuing theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

She took matters into her own hands, appearing at amateur nights with Edebiri and uploading uproarious (and distinctly) weird online content digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively drawn to pregnancy; another envisioned being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being caught in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and ended up starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she notes, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, adding amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who questioned about Sennott earlier will certainly be kicking themselves now. Through she labels a “incredibly circular” development, she appears to created the perfect project. In 2019 she shared a video titled “it’s LA” online, in which she mocked film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a show about city dwellers juggling advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being accused of being a intoxicated criminal, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). It would be easy to make a program about internet celebrity that was extremely idealized—or, worse, one that punched down at those depicted. I Love LA avoids both, creating a depiction of advantaged millennial living that’s candid about the chaos and the appeal.

Empathetic Approach

“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” she observes. “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