The actress and writer on the side-splitting comedy depicting that chaotic appeal of today's youth existence
The performer enters the video call and immediately starts an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, appearing really regretful. Despite being only a bit delayed, she feels compelled to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s just what one hopes to encounter. Besides, it’s fairly expected. Those who have seen her fearlessly queer and outspoken film titled Bottoms—that she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and featured in together with her friend Ayo Edebiri—can understand that Sennott has a lot to say, be it on roles, sex, or the pros of forming a high-school fight club. Furthermore, once you finish the new multi-episode program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has additional perspectives about the challenges of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott is a relatable figure for this generation, a tale-end millennial with a knack for straddling both generations).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott is enthusiastic, citing the show in addition to the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as guides for I Love LA, which tracks the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also fledgling talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the biggest presence on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, the show depicting a rising A-list actor navigating in a corrupt entertainment industry (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott began viewing it amid COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and chose to add a fresh perspective 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 concept for the series emerged—to some extent—from firsthand, at first rocky, relocation to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a popular event for enthusiasts. It was a phase that involved her understand some big insights, professionally and individually. “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.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”
Humble Origins
Raised in the East Coast, Sennott began writing and performing comedy while studying acting at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at open mics with Ayo and sharing hysterical (and very) weird comedy videos on the internet. One, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women fetishistically fixated on motherhood; a different one imagined working at the brand Hollister as akin to being trapped in a thriller. By chance, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately starring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her path, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, rather than traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, continuing with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Manifesting Dreams
Anyone who had doubts regarding Sennott earlier will surely be regretting it currently. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” development, she seems to have created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she shared content titled about Los Angeles online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a show about Angelenos balancing benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a drug-addled criminal, and perhaps becoming a risky persona non grata). Some could easy to make a program about online fame that was overly idealized—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. I Love LA avoids both, making for a representation of advantaged young adult living that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
