Rachel Sennott enters the video call and at once launches into an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding really remorseful. Although she's only a couple of minutes delayed, she feels compelled to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is just what one hopes to encounter. Besides, it’s fairly expected. Those who know her unapologetically queer and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—which she penned with her creative partner and starred in together with her friend the talented actress—can be aware that she possesses much to discuss, whether about identity, relationships, or the pros of forming a high-school combat group. And, once you finish her recent multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that she carries further thoughts about the darker side of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott represents an honorary member for this generation, a tale-end millennial adept for bridging millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Creative Vision
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott is an admirer, referencing it together with Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as influences for her series, which tracks the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also fledgling representative Maia. Perhaps, the largest spot on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, the program depicting a rising celebrity navigating in a gritty Hollywood (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it during lockdown, became “captivated”, and chose to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“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—to some extent—from her own, initially fractious, transition to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about occurrence for followers. It was an era that saw her grasp some big insights, work-wise and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Brought up in New England, Sennott started writing and performing comedy while enrolled in acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
Sennott seized control, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and posting hilarious (and very) bizarre online content digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted several females obsessively fixated on having babies; a different one imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being caught in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and ended up appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her path, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, stating amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts about Sennott then will likely be feeling foolish now. In what she labels a “wild, full-circle” story, she has created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she uploaded a video called about Los Angeles online, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a series about LA residents balancing benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). Some could simple to create a series about internet celebrity that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at its subjects. This show steers clear of each, resulting in a portrait of privileged millennial existence that’s honest about the chaos and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
