Rachel Sennott appears on the digital interview and at once launches into an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, appearing genuinely apologetic. She is only slightly behind, she wants to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, in this context, that’s exactly what you want to experience. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers familiar with the boldly queer and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—which she penned with her creative partner and appeared in together with collaborator Ayo Edebiri—can understand that she possesses plenty to say, ranging from about identity, sex, or the merits of creating a high-school brawl society. Plus, once you finish her latest multi-episode program titled I Love LA, it is clear that she has additional insights on the darker side of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, she serves as an honorary member of the gang, on the cusp adept for bridging both generations).
Influences and Creative Vision
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, naming the show alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for the project, which tracks the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and new agent Maia. However, the most significant presence on the moodboard belonged to the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming celebrity making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it during lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The concept for the series came—in part—from personal, originally fractious, relocation to LA and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about event for followers. This represented an era that included her grasp some big truths, professionally and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” 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 …”
Early Beginnings
Brought up in Connecticut, the star began writing and performing stand-up while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She seized control, appearing at open mics with Ayo and uploading hysterical (and distinctly) weird comedy videos online. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on characters obsessively drawn to having babies; a different one portrayed being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her journey, she notes, has been peers giving her a shot, instead of the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, adding with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Those who had doubts regarding her then will surely be regretting it now. As part of she labels a “astonishingly complete” development, she seems to have manifested an ideal role. In 2019 she uploaded a video named on LA life on social media, in which she parodied movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a series about LA residents juggling benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a substance-abusing stealer, and possibly becoming a risky outcast). It would be tempting to create a show about digital influence that was horribly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that punched down at the characters. This show steers clear of each, resulting in a portrait of advantaged millennial existence that’s candid about the mess and the appeal.
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
