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The performer enters the video call and right away begins an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, sounding truly apologetic. Despite being only a couple of minutes behind, she needs to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, for a writer, that’s just what is ideal to hear. Moreover, it’s quite unsurprising. Anyone who know the unapologetically openly gay and brash movie Bottoms—which she collaborated on with the director and featured in alongside her friend the talented actress—can already know that Sennott possesses much to share, whether about gender, sex, or the pros of forming a high-school combat group. And, after watching her new multi-episode show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that she carries even more thoughts regarding the struggles of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents a bridge for this generation, a tale-end millennial adept for bridging millennials and Gen Z).

Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction

Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and the actress is an admirer, citing the show together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for her series, which follows the travails of a social media star Tallulah and close companion who is also new talent manager Maia. Notably, the biggest influence on the moodboard went to Entourage, that show depicting an emerging A-list actor succeeding in an often-seedy Hollywood (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it amid lockdown, became “captivated”, and decided 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 says. The inspiration for this project originated—partly—from personal, initially difficult, move to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a frequently discussed event for astrology heads. This represented an era that saw her grasp major 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. It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Early Beginnings

Growing up in New England, Sennott began creating and acting comedy while studying theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

She decided to act independently, performing at live shows with Ayo and sharing hysterical (and decidedly) unconventional comedy videos online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed several females obsessively fixated on having babies; a different one portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being trapped in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and eventually appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her career, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, as opposed to the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she emphasizes, stating with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”

Manifesting Dreams

Individuals who were skeptical regarding Sennott earlier will likely be kicking themselves now. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she has created the perfect project. Previously she posted a video named on LA life on social media, in which she lampooned film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a series about Angelenos managing benefits of digital stardom (such as socializing at a celebrity’s house) with drawbacks (your client being labeled as being a substance-abusing thief, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). Some could easy to produce a program about internet celebrity that was extremely aspirational—or, worse, one that mocked at those depicted. The series avoids both, making for a depiction of privileged young adult living that’s candid about the mess and the glamour.

Balanced Perspective

“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