Rachel Sennott discussing her uproarious comedy depicting the grotty glamour of Gen Z life

The star joins the video call and immediately starts an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, appearing really remorseful. Despite being only a couple of minutes late, she feels compelled to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, in this context, that’s exactly what is ideal to encounter. Besides, it’s fairly predictable. Anyone familiar with the boldly queer and outspoken film titled Bottoms—that she collaborated on with her creative partner and appeared in with collaborator the talented actress—will already know that she holds plenty to say, ranging from about roles, relationships, or the pros of starting a teen combat group. And, by the end her latest multi-episode program I Love LA, it is clear that she holds even more perspectives on the challenges of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott represents a relatable figure of the gang, a tale-end millennial adept for connecting different age groups).

Influences and Creative Vision

Likenesses to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, naming it alongside the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the travails of a social media star Tallulah and close companion who is also fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. Notably, the most significant influence on creative vision belonged to the popular sitcom, the program depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star succeeding in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it throughout COVID-19, became “hooked”, and chose 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 explains. The idea for this project came—partly—from her own, initially fractious, transition to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. This represented an era that saw her grasp major insights, professionally and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Starting Out

Raised in New England, Sennott began creating and acting stand-up while pursuing performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she explains. “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. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

She seized control, performing at live shows with her friend and posting hysterical (and very) bizarre online content on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women obsessively fixated on having babies; another imagined being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being caught in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Seligman through NYU’s movie community and eventually starring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her journey, she says, has been people her own age supporting her, rather than the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, continuing amusedly: “They don’t want us to win.”

Career Breakthrough

Individuals who were skeptical regarding her then will likely be kicking themselves today. In what she calls a “incredibly circular” development, she appears to created the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded content called “it’s LA” online, in which she mocked film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a series about LA residents juggling benefits of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being suspected of being a substance-abusing criminal, and possibly becoming a risky persona non grata). One might easy to create a series about digital influence that was horribly idealized—or, more problematic, one that punched down at the characters. This show does neither, creating a representation of privileged young adult existence that’s honest about the chaos and the shine.

Empathetic Approach

“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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

Anna Jones
Anna Jones

A software engineer and tech writer passionate about AI, cybersecurity, and emerging technologies, with over a decade of industry experience.