🔗 Share this article

The star joins the digital interview and right away launches into an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming genuinely remorseful. Although she's only a couple of minutes behind, she wants 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!” Fortunately, for a writer, that’s precisely what one hopes to experience. Additionally, it’s quite unsurprising. Viewers who know the fearlessly LGBTQ+ and brash film titled Bottoms—which she collaborated on with the director and featured in together with close companion the talented actress—can already know that she has much to say, ranging from about identity, sex, or the appeal of creating a high-school combat group. Plus, by the end her latest multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that the star carries additional thoughts about the darker side of young adulthood (As a millennial, she serves as an honorary member to younger audiences, straddling eras adept for connecting different age groups).

Influences and Artistic Direction

Parallels to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges a fan, referencing it alongside Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the journey of an influencer Tallulah and her friend and new talent manager Sennott’s character. However, the biggest presence on creative vision belonged to Entourage, the show depicting a rising celebrity making his way in a corrupt entertainment industry (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it throughout lockdown, became “captivated”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The concept for this project emerged—in part—from personal, initially rocky, move to Los Angeles and from her cosmic event, a much-talked-about event for enthusiasts. This represented a phase that involved her understand major truths, in her career and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she says. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Starting Out

Growing up in New England, Sennott started writing and performing stand-up while enrolled in performance at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” 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. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

She seized control, performing at open mics with Edebiri and posting hysterical (and very) unconventional comedy videos online. One, Baby Cult, depicted characters fetishistically drawn to motherhood; another imagined working at the brand Hollister as akin to being trapped in a thriller. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a religious event with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her path, she says, has been peers offering opportunities, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, adding humorously: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”

Rising Success

Anyone who questioned about her then will surely be kicking themselves currently. As part of she describes as a “wild, full-circle” turn of events, she seems to have manifested her dream vehicle. In 2019 she posted content titled “it’s LA” on social media, in which she lampooned movie previews (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers juggling the perks of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your friend being accused of being a drug-addled stealer, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). It would be tempting to make a program about digital influence that was overly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at its subjects. This show avoids both, creating a depiction of privileged young adult life that’s honest about the grot and the appeal.

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