The comedic talent exploring her side-splitting series about that grotty allure of Gen Z existence
The performer appears on the digital interview and at once launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, sounding really regretful. Despite being only slightly behind, she feels compelled to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, for a writer, that’s precisely what you want to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty unsurprising. Viewers who know the boldly LGBTQ+ and brash project titled Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with her creative partner and starred in with collaborator The Bear’s standout—can already know that Sennott has a lot to share, whether on roles, relationships, or the merits of forming a teen fight club. Furthermore, by the end her latest seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has additional perspectives about the darker side of modern youth (As a millennial, she is a bridge to younger audiences, straddling eras adept for connecting millennials and Gen Z).
Influences and Creative Vision
Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and Sennott is an admirer, naming it alongside the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as influences for I Love LA, which details the journey of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend and new talent manager Sennott’s character. However, the largest influence on the moodboard belonged to Entourage, the show about a rising A-list actor navigating in a corrupt LA scene (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The concept for the series emerged—partly—from firsthand, at first fractious, relocation to LA and from the saturn return, a popular event for followers. It was a phase that involved her learn major life lessons, work-wise and in private life. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she says. “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 Connecticut, the star commenced writing and performing humor while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “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. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with Ayo and uploading uproarious (and very) bizarre comedy videos online. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically obsessed with having babies; another envisioned being employed at the brand Hollister as similar to being caught in a scary movie. Interestingly, she encountered Seligman through the university’s film scene and eventually featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a religious event with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her path, she notes, has been people her own age offering opportunities, instead of the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she repeats, stating amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Those who were skeptical regarding Sennott previously will surely be feeling foolish today. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she has manifested an ideal role. Previously she uploaded a video named “it’s LA” on social media, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a comedy about Angelenos juggling advantages of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your client being accused of being a intoxicated stealer, and potentially becoming a risky persona non grata). One might tempting to make a series about internet celebrity that was overly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at those depicted. I Love LA steers clear of each, creating a depiction of affluent young adult living that’s candid about the chaos and the glamour.
Empathetic Approach
“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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