The star joins the online meeting and immediately launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding really apologetic. Although she's only a bit behind, she wants to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, during an interview, this is just what one hopes to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty predictable. Viewers familiar with her unapologetically openly gay and outspoken project Bottoms—which she penned with the director and starred in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—can already know that she possesses plenty to discuss, be it about gender, sex, or the pros of starting a teen fight club. Plus, by the end the new eight-part HBO series I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star carries even more perspectives on the darker side of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott serves as an honorary member for this generation, on the cusp skilled for connecting different age groups).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott is an admirer, citing the show together with the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and new talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the largest presence on the moodboard belonged to the popular sitcom, the program about a rising celebrity succeeding in an often-seedy LA scene (memorable line: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She began viewing it during lockdown, became “hooked”, and chose to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The concept for this project came—in part—from firsthand, initially difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about phenomenon for enthusiasts. It was an era that saw her learn some big insights, professionally and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Growing up in Connecticut, the star began creating and acting comedy while enrolled in acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. 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 took matters into her own hands, appearing at live shows with Ayo and sharing hysterical (and very) unconventional skits on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed several females intensely drawn to motherhood; another envisioned being employed at a trendy retail outlet as like being trapped in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and eventually featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she explains, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, instead of established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, stating amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Individuals who were skeptical about Sennott then will likely be feeling foolish currently. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has achieved the perfect project. Previously she uploaded a video named “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she mocked film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about city dwellers managing advantages of online celebrity (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a substance-abusing criminal, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). Some could easy to create a show about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. This show steers clear of each, creating a representation of affluent millennial life that’s honest about the mess and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” she comments. “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
