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Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and right away launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, seeming really remorseful. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, 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!” Fortunately, during an interview, that’s precisely what one hopes to hear. Besides, it’s quite predictable. Those familiar with the fearlessly LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie Bottoms—that Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in with close companion the talented actress—would understand that Sennott holds much to say, ranging from on roles, intimacy, or the appeal of forming a youth combat group. Plus, after watching her latest seasonal show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has additional thoughts about the darker side of modern youth (As a millennial, she represents an honorary member for this generation, a tale-end millennial skilled for connecting different age groups).

Inspirations and Creative Vision

Parallels to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress is a fan, citing it alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Atlanta as guides for the project, which details the struggles of an influencer Tallulah and close companion and aspiring representative portrayed by Sennott. However, the most significant influence on concept was reserved for the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming A-list actor succeeding in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “obsessed”, and chose to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The concept for this project originated—partly—from her own, initially fractious, transition to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a popular occurrence for followers. That period marked a phase that saw her learn major life lessons, in her career and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Humble Origins

Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott began writing and performing comedy while pursuing acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

Sennott seized control, appearing at live shows with her friend and uploading hilarious (and decidedly) bizarre skits on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women obsessively obsessed with having babies; another portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being caught in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through NYU’s movie community and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her journey, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, adding with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Individuals who were skeptical regarding her then will likely be regretting it currently. In what she labels a “wild, full-circle” development, she has manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she posted a video named on LA life on the internet, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a show about city dwellers juggling the perks of digital stardom (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your friend being labeled as being a substance-abusing stealer, and perhaps becoming a risky pariah). It would be simple to produce a series about online fame that was horribly aspirational—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at its subjects. The series does neither, creating a depiction of advantaged millennial living that’s honest about the mess and the glamour.

Empathetic Approach

“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