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The star appears on the video call and immediately launches into an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming really regretful. Although she's only a couple of minutes late, she feels compelled to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is just what is ideal to hear. Moreover, it’s quite unsurprising. Viewers who have seen her fearlessly openly gay and outspoken film Bottoms—which Sennott penned with her creative partner and appeared in together with close companion the talented actress—would understand that Sennott holds a lot to say, be it about gender, sex, or the pros of creating a high-school combat group. Plus, after watching the new eight-part show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries even more perspectives about the darker side of young adulthood (As a millennial, Sennott represents a relatable figure of the gang, a tale-end millennial skilled for straddling different age groups).

Inspirations and Artistic Direction

Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, referencing it alongside Sex and the City, Insecure and Atlanta as guides for her series, which follows the travails of a social media star Tallulah and close companion who is also new agent Sennott’s character. Notably, the biggest influence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, that HBO sitcom about an emerging A-list actor navigating in a gritty Hollywood (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided 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 notes. The inspiration for the series came—in part—from her own, initially rocky, relocation to LA and from the cosmic event, a frequently discussed occurrence for followers. It was a phase that saw her understand some big truths, professionally and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “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 …”

Starting Out

Raised in Connecticut, Sennott began developing and showcasing stand-up while pursuing acting at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” 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.”

Sennott decided to act independently, taking the stage at live shows with Ayo and uploading hilarious (and decidedly) weird comedy videos on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, followed several females fetishistically obsessed with pregnancy; a different one portrayed working at the brand Hollister as similar to being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up appearing in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of the intense thriller. The central motif of her path, she notes, has been peers giving her a shot, as opposed to the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, continuing humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”

Career Breakthrough

Those who questioned regarding Sennott previously will likely be kicking themselves now. In what she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. Previously she shared content called “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a show about city dwellers managing advantages of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your friend being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable pariah). One might easy to create a series about online fame that was extremely aspirational—or, more problematic, one that punched down at those depicted. This show does neither, making for a portrait of privileged young adult life that’s frank about the chaos and the appeal.

Nuanced Portrayal

“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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