The performer appears on the video call and right away launches into an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, sounding genuinely regretful. Despite being only slightly late, she feels compelled to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s precisely what is ideal to encounter. Moreover, it’s fairly predictable. Viewers familiar with the unapologetically queer and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—which she penned with her creative partner and featured in together with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will understand that Sennott holds a lot to say, be it about identity, relationships, or the pros of creating a youth fight club. Furthermore, by the end her latest multi-episode HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that she carries even more perspectives on the challenges of modern youth (As a millennial, Sennott serves as a bridge of the gang, straddling eras skilled for connecting different age groups).
Influences and Creative Vision
Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott is an admirer, naming it in addition to the HBO hit, Insecure and Atlanta as guides for the project, which tracks the travails of a social media star Tallulah and her friend and new representative Maia. Notably, the biggest influence on creative vision belonged to the HBO series, the program depicting a rising Hollywood star making his way in a gritty Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it throughout lockdown, became “captivated”, 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 explains. The concept for the series originated—partly—from her own, initially rocky, move to LA and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented a time that saw her understand major truths, professionally and in private life. “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 resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Early Beginnings
Growing up in the East Coast, Sennott commenced creating and acting stand-up while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” 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?”
Sennott seized control, appearing at live shows with Edebiri and sharing hilarious (and very) weird skits digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed several females fetishistically drawn to having babies; another imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being stuck in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up appearing in her first film, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a religious event with hints of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she explains, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she confirms, adding amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Anyone who questioned regarding Sennott then will likely be feeling foolish now. Through she describes as a “wild, full-circle” story, she appears to achieved her dream vehicle. A few years back she shared a clip named “it’s LA” on social media, in which she mocked movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers juggling benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your associate being labeled as being a substance-abusing criminal, and potentially becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be tempting to make a series about digital influence that was extremely glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. I Love LA steers clear of each, making for a portrait of affluent twentysomething living that’s candid about the mess 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
