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The star joins the digital interview and right away begins an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, seeming truly regretful. Although she's only slightly delayed, she feels compelled to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s precisely what one hopes to experience. Besides, it’s quite expected. Those who have seen her boldly openly gay and brash project Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with Emma Seligman and featured in together with her friend the talented actress—would be aware that Sennott has plenty to discuss, ranging from about gender, sex, or the merits of starting a teen fight club. And, by the end her latest multi-episode show I Love LA, it is clear that the star has even more perspectives on the darker side of young adulthood (At 30, she is a bridge for this generation, straddling eras skilled for straddling millennials and Gen Z).

Influences and Artistic Direction

Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show are inevitable and the actress admits to being a fan, citing it alongside Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for her series, which details the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and fledgling agent Sennott’s character. However, the most significant spot on concept went to the HBO series, that show about an emerging Hollywood star making his way in a gritty entertainment industry (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it throughout lockdown, became “hooked”, and resolved 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 explains. The idea for I Love LA emerged—in part—from firsthand, at first fractious, relocation to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a popular event for enthusiasts. This represented a time that saw her grasp major insights, in her career 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. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Humble Origins

Growing up in New England, the star started writing and performing comedy while pursuing theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

She seized control, appearing at live shows with her friend and uploading uproarious (and distinctly) weird skits online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed characters intensely drawn to having babies; a different one portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as like being stuck in a thriller. By chance, she connected with Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a religious event with hints of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her career, she says, has been people her own age offering opportunities, rather than the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, stating amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”

Career Breakthrough

Anyone who were skeptical about her earlier will surely be regretting it today. As part of she describes as a “incredibly circular” development, she has created her dream vehicle. A few years back she posted a clip called “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she parodied movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a show about city dwellers balancing benefits of internet fame (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled stealer, and perhaps becoming a unreliable persona non grata). Some could easy to make a show about internet celebrity that was overly idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at the characters. This show does neither, making for a representation of affluent young adult existence that’s honest 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