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The performer enters the video call and immediately starts an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming truly regretful. Despite being only a bit behind, she needs to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s just what one hopes to hear. Moreover, it’s quite expected. Viewers who have seen her boldly queer and outspoken movie Bottoms—which Sennott penned with her creative partner and featured in together with close companion Ayo Edebiri—would already know that she has a lot to share, whether on roles, sex, or the merits of creating a high-school combat group. Furthermore, once you finish the new eight-part show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries further perspectives about the struggles of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she serves as an honorary member of the gang, on the cusp skilled for bridging both generations).

Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach

The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being an admirer, naming the show alongside the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as influences for the project, which follows the struggles of a social media star Tallulah and close companion and new talent manager Sennott’s character. However, the largest presence on the moodboard was reserved for the HBO series, the show depicting a rising celebrity making his way in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott began viewing it during the pandemic, became “hooked”, and decided 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 says. The idea for I Love LA originated—to some extent—from personal, initially fractious, move to Los Angeles and from her saturn return, a frequently discussed event for astrology heads. This represented a phase that included her understand significant life lessons, work-wise and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Starting Out

Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott commenced developing and showcasing humor while pursuing theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

She decided to act independently, taking the stage at live shows with her friend and posting uproarious (and decidedly) unconventional comedy videos online. One, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women fetishistically obsessed with pregnancy; another portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being caught in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and eventually featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a religious event with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her career, she says, has been people her own age giving her a shot, instead of traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who questioned about Sennott earlier will likely be regretting it now. In what she calls a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she has created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she posted a video named on LA life on the internet, in which she lampooned film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a comedy about city dwellers balancing advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your friend being suspected of being a substance-abusing thief, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). It would be simple to make a show about digital influence that was extremely aspirational—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. The series avoids both, making for a portrait of affluent millennial life that’s frank about the chaos and the glamour.

Balanced Perspective

“There have been a lot of shows that depict young people and their relationship to the internet in this very condescending, hateful way,” 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