The performer joins the online meeting and right away starts an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, sounding genuinely regretful. She is only a couple of minutes behind, she needs to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, for a writer, this is exactly what one hopes to encounter. Additionally, it’s quite expected. Those who know her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass film titled Bottoms—which she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and appeared in alongside close companion Ayo Edebiri—will be aware that she holds plenty to discuss, be it about identity, intimacy, or the appeal of starting a high-school brawl society. Furthermore, by the end her latest seasonal program I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has further perspectives about the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott is a bridge for this generation, a tale-end millennial adept for bridging different age groups).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott is enthusiastic, citing it alongside the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which follows the travails of online personality Tallulah and ally who is also aspiring talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the largest influence on creative vision went to the popular sitcom, the show focusing on a rising celebrity navigating in an often-seedy Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She started watching it throughout lockdown, 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 I Love LA came—to some extent—from her own, initially difficult, transition to LA and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about phenomenon for astrology heads. This represented a time that included her learn significant insights, professionally and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Early Beginnings
Raised in Connecticut, the star commenced creating and acting comedy while pursuing theatre 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.” I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
She took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with Edebiri and sharing uproarious (and very) bizarre comedy videos online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted several females intensely fixated on motherhood; a different one envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being caught in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she met Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her journey, she notes, has been peers giving her a shot, instead of the industry at large. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, continuing with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who had doubts regarding Sennott then will likely be feeling foolish currently. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” story, she has achieved the perfect project. Previously she shared a clip called on LA life online, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a series about Angelenos managing advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled criminal, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). It would be easy to make a series about digital influence that was extremely aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at those depicted. I Love LA does neither, creating a depiction of affluent twentysomething living that’s frank 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
