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The performer enters the digital interview and immediately starts an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, seeming truly regretful. Although she's only a couple of minutes late, she feels compelled 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!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s exactly what you want to encounter. Additionally, it’s fairly predictable. Those familiar with her boldly LGBTQ+ and brash project Bottoms—that she collaborated on with the director and appeared in together with her friend the talented actress—can already know that she has plenty to discuss, be it about gender, sex, or the pros of forming a high-school combat group. Plus, by the end her new eight-part program I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has even more insights about the struggles of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott serves as a relatable figure to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial adept for straddling both generations).

Inspirations and Creative Vision

The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and the actress is a fan, referencing it together with the HBO hit, Insecure and the innovative program as influences for the project, which details the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also fledgling representative Maia. Notably, the biggest influence on the moodboard went to Entourage, that show about an emerging Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy LA scene (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it throughout lockdown, became “captivated”, and resolved to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The concept for the series originated—to some extent—from her own, originally fractious, relocation to LA and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. It was a phase that included her learn some big life lessons, professionally and personally. “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. It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Humble Origins

Brought up in the East Coast, the star began developing and showcasing stand-up while pursuing theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

She seized control, taking the stage at live shows with Ayo and uploading uproarious (and very) bizarre online content online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women intensely fixated on motherhood; a different one portrayed working at a trendy retail outlet as like being caught in a horror film. By chance, she met Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a religious event with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her path, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, instead of established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, continuing with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”

Career Breakthrough

Those who had doubts regarding Sennott then will likely be kicking themselves currently. Through she labels a “wild, full-circle” story, she has created an ideal role. Previously she uploaded content called “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a show about LA residents managing the perks of online celebrity (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being labeled as being a intoxicated thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable outcast). One might simple to create a program about internet celebrity that was horribly idealized—or, more problematic, one that mocked at its subjects. The series does neither, resulting in a portrait of advantaged millennial living that’s candid about the mess and the glamour.

Nuanced Portrayal

“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