🔗 Share this article

The performer joins the online meeting and right away begins an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, seeming genuinely apologetic. She is only a couple of minutes late, she wants to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, during an interview, this is just what is ideal to experience. Moreover, it’s quite predictable. Anyone who have seen the unapologetically queer and unapologetically crass film Bottoms—that she collaborated on with her creative partner and starred in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—will already know that she has much to say, ranging from about gender, intimacy, or the merits of creating a teen combat group. And, once you finish the recent multi-episode program I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries additional thoughts regarding the challenges of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she serves as a bridge for this generation, on the cusp with a knack for straddling millennials and Gen Z).

Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach

Parallels to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress is an admirer, naming it in addition to the classic series, Insecure and Atlanta as influences for her series, which follows the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and aspiring representative portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the most significant spot on concept belonged to the HBO series, the show depicting an emerging celebrity making his way in a corrupt LA scene (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it during the pandemic, became “hooked”, and resolved to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The idea for the series emerged—in part—from firsthand, originally difficult, transition to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented a time that saw her grasp some big life lessons, work-wise and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Early Beginnings

Brought up in New England, the star started developing and showcasing comedy while pursuing theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with Edebiri and posting hilarious (and decidedly) weird comedy videos on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women intensely fixated on having babies; a different one envisioned working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a horror film. By chance, she met Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a religious event with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she notes, has been people her own age offering opportunities, rather than established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, continuing amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Those who were skeptical about Sennott then will likely be regretting it currently. In what she labels a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she seems to have created an ideal role. Previously she shared content titled on LA life on social media, in which she parodied movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with Emma Barrie) of a comedy about Angelenos juggling the perks of digital stardom (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your friend being labeled as being a drug-addled criminal, and perhaps becoming a risky outcast). One might simple to produce a series about internet celebrity that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that punched down at its subjects. The series avoids both, resulting in a portrait of affluent young adult existence that’s honest about the chaos and the glamour.

Balanced Perspective

“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” she comments. “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