Rachel Sennott enters the digital interview and at once launches into an excuse. “Apologies for the delay!” she says, appearing really regretful. Although she's only a bit behind, she feels compelled to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, for a writer, this is precisely what is ideal to encounter. Additionally, it’s quite predictable. Viewers who know the fearlessly queer and brash project titled Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with her creative partner and appeared in alongside close companion The Bear’s standout—can already know that Sennott holds plenty to discuss, whether about gender, intimacy, or the merits of starting a high-school combat group. Plus, by the end the latest eight-part program I Love LA, viewers realize that she holds even more thoughts regarding the struggles of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott is an honorary member of the gang, a tale-end millennial skilled for straddling both generations).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
Likenesses to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being an admirer, naming it together with Sex and the City, Insecure and the innovative program as influences for the project, which tracks the journey of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and fledgling representative portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the most significant presence on the moodboard was reserved for Entourage, that HBO sitcom focusing on an up-and-coming celebrity succeeding in a gritty entertainment industry (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it during the pandemic, became “captivated”, and decided to put her own twist 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 this project emerged—partly—from her own, at first fractious, move to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about occurrence for followers. That period marked a phase that involved her learn major truths, in her career and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “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
Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott started creating and acting stand-up while studying theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she states. “I tried out for all the NYU comedy groups, and got rejected from all of them. “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”
She seized control, performing at amateur nights with Edebiri and posting hilarious (and distinctly) bizarre comedy videos online. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women intensely obsessed with pregnancy; another envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being trapped in a thriller. Interestingly, she met Seligman through campus film circles and ultimately featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a religious event with echoes of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her path, she notes, has been peers offering opportunities, as opposed to established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, stating with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”
Rising Success
Anyone who were skeptical regarding her then will surely be regretting it now. Through she labels a “wild, full-circle” development, she has achieved the perfect project. Previously she posted a video titled on LA life online, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a show about city dwellers managing benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your client being labeled as being a intoxicated criminal, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). One might easy to create a program about digital influence that was extremely aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at those depicted. This show steers clear of each, creating a depiction of privileged twentysomething existence that’s candid about the mess and the glamour.
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 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
