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The performer appears on the video call and right away begins an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, seeming truly regretful. She is only a bit delayed, she feels compelled to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, in this context, this is precisely what you want to encounter. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those who have seen the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—which Sennott collaborated on with her creative partner and starred in alongside close companion Ayo Edebiri—can understand that Sennott has much to share, whether about roles, relationships, or the appeal of starting a teen fight club. And, after watching her latest eight-part HBO series I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star carries further insights regarding the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, Sennott is an honorary member to younger audiences, straddling eras skilled for straddling both generations).

Influences and Creative Vision

The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, citing it alongside the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for the project, which tracks the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the biggest spot on the moodboard went to the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom focusing on a rising celebrity making his way in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it amid COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and chose 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 concept for the series emerged—in part—from personal, at first fractious, move to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a popular occurrence for followers. This represented an era that saw her understand some big insights, in her career and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “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 …”

Humble Origins

Brought up in New England, Sennott commenced creating and acting stand-up while pursuing acting at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

She decided to act independently, performing at amateur nights with Edebiri and uploading hilarious (and decidedly) weird online content digitally. One, Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically drawn to pregnancy; a different one envisioned being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ultimately starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her journey, she notes, has been people her own age offering opportunities, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she confirms, adding with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Rising Success

Those who were skeptical about her previously will surely be kicking themselves now. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” story, she appears to manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she posted a clip titled “it’s LA” on social media, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a series about LA residents managing benefits of internet fame (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your client being suspected of being a drug-addled criminal, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). It would be easy to produce a program about digital influence that was horribly glamorous—or, worse, one that punched down at the characters. The series steers clear of each, making for a depiction of affluent twentysomething living that’s frank about the mess and the glamour.

Nuanced Portrayal

“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