The star appears on the online meeting and right away launches into an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, seeming really remorseful. Despite being only slightly late, she wants to explain. “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!” Thankfully, for a writer, this is exactly what is ideal to experience. Moreover, it’s pretty predictable. Viewers who know the boldly queer and outspoken film titled Bottoms—which Sennott co-wrote with the director and appeared in alongside close companion The Bear’s standout—would be aware that Sennott possesses a lot to share, be it about roles, sex, or the pros of starting a youth brawl society. Furthermore, by the end the recent seasonal show I Love LA, viewers realize that she holds further insights regarding the struggles of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she is a relatable figure of the gang, on the cusp adept for straddling different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and Sennott is an admirer, naming the show together with the classic series, Insecure and Atlanta as influences for the project, which tracks the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and aspiring agent Maia. However, the largest presence on the moodboard was reserved for the HBO series, the HBO sitcom focusing on a rising Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy entertainment industry (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott began viewing it during the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to create a new version 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 explains. The concept for this project came—partly—from her own, initially difficult, relocation to LA and from the saturn return, a frequently discussed event for followers. That period marked a time that included her understand major insights, in her career and individually. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Growing up in New England, the star started writing and performing comedy while pursuing theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” 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.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”
Sennott decided to act independently, performing at live shows with Ayo and posting uproarious (and decidedly) bizarre skits on the internet. One, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women obsessively fixated on pregnancy; another envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as like being caught in a horror film. By chance, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and eventually featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she notes, has been people her own age giving her a shot, as opposed to traditional networks. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “They were not involved”, she emphasizes, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Career Breakthrough
Anyone who questioned regarding Sennott earlier will surely be regretting it today. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” story, she has created her dream vehicle. In 2019 she posted content named “it’s LA” on social media, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a show about LA residents juggling benefits of digital stardom (such as celebrating at a celebrity’s house) with downsides (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). It would be easy to produce a series about digital influence that was extremely aspirational—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. This show avoids both, resulting in a depiction of privileged young adult existence that’s frank about the grot 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 says. “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
