🔗 Share this article

The star enters the digital interview and immediately launches into an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely remorseful. She is only a bit late, she needs to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, in this context, that’s precisely what one hopes to encounter. Besides, it’s quite predictable. Those familiar with the boldly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—that she collaborated on with her creative partner and starred in alongside her friend the talented actress—can understand that she possesses a lot to share, ranging from on identity, sex, or the merits of forming a teen fight club. Furthermore, by the end her recent seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she holds even more thoughts about the struggles of young adulthood (As a millennial, she serves as a relatable figure of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for bridging millennials and Gen Z).

Influences and Creative Vision

Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, referencing the show together with the classic series, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and her friend who is also fledgling agent Sennott’s character. Notably, the largest presence on creative vision went to Entourage, the show depicting a rising Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt entertainment industry (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott began viewing it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she says. The idea for the series originated—in part—from her own, initially fractious, transition to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented a time that included her learn major life lessons, work-wise and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Humble Origins

Raised in New England, Sennott started creating and acting comedy while enrolled in acting at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

She seized control, appearing at live shows with her friend and uploading hysterical (and very) weird skits online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed several females obsessively drawn to pregnancy; another imagined working at the brand Hollister as akin to being caught in a thriller. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and eventually starring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of Uncut Gems. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she confirms, continuing humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Rising Success

Individuals who questioned about her previously will likely be feeling foolish currently. Through she calls a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she appears to manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she posted a video titled about Los Angeles online, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a show about LA residents balancing the perks of digital stardom (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being suspected of being a substance-abusing thief, and perhaps becoming a unreliable persona non grata). One might tempting to create a show about internet celebrity that was horribly idealized—or, worse, one that punched down at the characters. The series steers clear of each, making for a depiction of advantaged millennial life that’s frank about the grot 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