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The star appears on the online meeting and immediately launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, seeming genuinely regretful. She is only slightly behind, she feels compelled to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is exactly what you want to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty unsurprising. Anyone who know the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—that she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and starred in together with close companion Ayo Edebiri—can already know that she possesses much to say, be it on identity, sex, or the pros of creating a high-school combat group. Plus, once you finish her recent seasonal show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds additional thoughts about the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott represents a relatable figure of the gang, straddling eras adept for bridging different age groups).

Guiding Lights and Creative Vision

Parallels to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, citing it alongside the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which follows the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and new agent Maia. Perhaps, the most significant presence on the moodboard belonged to Entourage, the show focusing on a rising A-list actor navigating in a gritty LA scene (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She began viewing it during the pandemic, became “hooked”, and decided to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she explains. The inspiration for I Love LA came—to some extent—from firsthand, at first rocky, relocation to LA and from her saturn return, a frequently discussed event for followers. That period marked a time that included her understand some big truths, work-wise and personally. “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 …”

Starting Out

Brought up in New England, Sennott commenced developing and showcasing comedy while enrolled in acting at NYU’s Tisch. “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. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

She decided to act independently, performing at live shows with Ayo and uploading hilarious (and distinctly) bizarre skits digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, depicted characters fetishistically obsessed with pregnancy; another envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being trapped in a horror film. By chance, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a religious event with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her journey, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, continuing amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who were skeptical about her earlier will certainly be kicking themselves now. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. A few years back she posted a clip named on LA life on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about LA residents managing the perks of internet fame (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your friend being suspected of being a drug-addled stealer, and perhaps becoming a risky outcast). Some could simple to produce a series about digital influence that was horribly glamorous—or, worse, one that belittled at the characters. The series does neither, making for a portrait of advantaged twentysomething existence that’s honest about the grot and the shine.

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