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Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and immediately starts an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, appearing truly apologetic. Despite being only a bit delayed, she needs to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s precisely what one hopes to experience. Moreover, it’s pretty expected. Anyone who know her unapologetically queer and brash film Bottoms—that Sennott collaborated on with the director and featured in alongside close companion Ayo Edebiri—would be aware that she has a lot to discuss, whether on identity, sex, or the merits of creating a high-school fight club. And, once you finish the new multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that she holds further insights on the darker side of modern youth (As a millennial, she serves as a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp skilled for straddling both generations).

Inspirations and Artistic Direction

Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, naming the show in addition to the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which tracks the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and aspiring agent portrayed by Sennott. However, the most significant presence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, the program about an up-and-coming Hollywood star succeeding in a corrupt Hollywood (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott began viewing it throughout the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and decided 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 idea for I Love LA originated—in part—from personal, at first fractious, relocation to LA and from the saturn return, a popular event for enthusiasts. That period marked a time that involved her grasp significant insights, work-wise and personally. “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. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Early Beginnings

Brought up in New England, Sennott began writing and performing stand-up while studying performance at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” 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 live shows with her friend and sharing hysterical (and distinctly) weird online content digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women fetishistically fixated on having babies; another imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being trapped in a horror film. By chance, she connected with Emma through campus film circles and ended up starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a religious event with echoes of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her career, she explains, has been people her own age giving her a shot, as opposed to established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she repeats, stating humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Rising Success

Anyone who questioned regarding her previously will certainly be feeling foolish currently. As part of she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she seems to have manifested her dream vehicle. A few years back she posted content named “it’s LA” online, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a series about LA residents balancing the perks of digital stardom (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being accused of being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a risky pariah). It would be tempting to produce a series about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, more problematic, one that punched down at the characters. The series steers clear of each, resulting in a depiction of advantaged young adult living that’s candid about the grot and the appeal.

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 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