Rachel Sennott on her uproarious series about the grotty appeal of younger generation lifestyle

The star appears on the online meeting and at once begins an excuse. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming really regretful. She is only a couple of minutes late, 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!” Fortunately, during an interview, this is just what one hopes to experience. Besides, it’s quite predictable. Viewers who know the unapologetically openly gay and outspoken project titled Bottoms—which Sennott penned with the director and appeared in together with close companion the talented actress—can understand that she holds much to say, be it on roles, relationships, or the merits of creating a high-school fight club. Plus, after watching the latest multi-episode show I Love LA, it is clear that the star has further thoughts regarding the darker side of Gen Z life (Now in her thirties, Sennott is a bridge of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).

Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach

The comparisons to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress admits to being a fan, citing the show in addition to the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for the project, which tracks the journey of a social media star Tallulah and her friend and fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the most significant presence on creative vision was reserved for the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom focusing on a rising A-list actor making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it during lockdown, became “captivated”, and decided to add a fresh perspective on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The idea for the series emerged—to some extent—from personal, at first rocky, relocation to Los Angeles and from her astrological phase, a popular phenomenon for followers. It was an era that included her grasp major truths, in her career and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Early Beginnings

Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott commenced writing and performing comedy while pursuing theatre at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” 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. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

She took matters into her own hands, appearing at live shows with her friend and posting uproarious (and very) weird comedy videos on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women intensely fixated on pregnancy; a different one imagined being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Seligman through campus film circles and ended up starring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a Jewish wake with hints of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, rather than traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, continuing humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who had doubts regarding Sennott previously will certainly be kicking themselves now. As part of she calls a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she appears to created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she posted a video titled about Los Angeles online, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s the co-showrunner (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers juggling the perks of online celebrity (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being labeled as being a intoxicated criminal, and possibly becoming a risky pariah). It would be easy to create a show about online fame that was horribly aspirational—or, worse, one that punched down at the characters. I Love LA steers clear of each, creating a representation of privileged millennial living that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.

Nuanced Portrayal

“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” she comments. “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

Michael Miranda Jr.
Michael Miranda Jr.

A seasoned journalist with over a decade of experience covering UK politics and social issues, known for insightful analysis and thorough reporting.