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The star appears on the video call and immediately starts an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, sounding really remorseful. She is only a couple of minutes behind, she needs to justify. “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!” Luckily, during an interview, this is exactly what is ideal to encounter. Additionally, it’s quite predictable. Viewers familiar with her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken film Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—will be aware that she holds a lot to share, be it on roles, sex, or the pros of forming a youth combat group. Plus, once you finish the latest seasonal show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star carries additional insights about the darker side of young adulthood (As a millennial, she is a relatable figure for this generation, straddling eras skilled for connecting different age groups).

Inspirations and Storytelling Approach

The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress is an admirer, naming the show in addition to the HBO hit, Insecure and the innovative program as inspirations for the project, which tracks the struggles of online personality Tallulah and her friend who is also aspiring talent manager portrayed by Sennott. However, the largest presence on the moodboard belonged to Entourage, that show about an emerging celebrity making his way in an often-seedy Hollywood (notable statement: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott started watching it during the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The inspiration for I Love LA emerged—partly—from personal, originally rocky, move to LA and from her cosmic event, a popular event for astrology heads. That period marked a time that included her understand significant life lessons, professionally and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” 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 resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Humble Origins

Raised in the East Coast, Sennott commenced creating and acting stand-up while studying theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. 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 took matters into her own hands, performing at open mics with her friend and uploading hysterical (and distinctly) unconventional skits digitally. One, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively drawn to pregnancy; another envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being trapped in a thriller. By chance, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually starring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her path, she notes, has been peers giving her a shot, instead of traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, continuing amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Individuals who were skeptical regarding Sennott previously will surely be feeling foolish now. Through she labels a “wild, full-circle” development, she has manifested her dream vehicle. Previously she uploaded content called on LA life on the internet, in which she parodied movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a show about LA residents managing benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled criminal, and perhaps becoming a unreliable outcast). Some could simple to create a program about online fame that was overly aspirational—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. I Love LA avoids both, making for a representation of privileged twentysomething living that’s candid about the chaos and the appeal.

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 observes. “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