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The star joins the online meeting and right away starts an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, sounding really remorseful. Despite being only a bit late, she wants to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, in this context, this is precisely what one hopes to experience. Besides, it’s fairly expected. Those who have seen the fearlessly openly gay and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—which she co-wrote with her creative partner and starred in together with her friend Ayo Edebiri—will already know that she has a lot to say, be it about gender, relationships, or the merits of creating a teen fight club. Plus, by the end her recent eight-part show titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has further perspectives regarding the struggles of modern youth (As a millennial, she represents a relatable figure for this generation, straddling eras with a knack for straddling millennials and Gen Z).

Guiding Lights and Creative Vision

Parallels to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being an admirer, naming the show in addition to Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and the innovative program as influences for her series, which tracks the travails of online personality Tallulah and close companion and fledgling representative portrayed by Sennott. However, the biggest presence on the moodboard belonged to Entourage, the show depicting a rising A-list actor succeeding in an often-seedy Hollywood (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott started watching it amid the pandemic, 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 idea for the series emerged—in part—from firsthand, at first fractious, move to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. That period marked a time that saw her understand major life lessons, in her career and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Starting Out

Growing up in New England, Sennott commenced developing and showcasing stand-up while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “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. “Theatre productions at school also didn’t accept me. And I just felt like, what am I doing here?”

Sennott decided to act independently, performing at amateur nights with her friend and sharing uproarious (and decidedly) unconventional skits on the internet. One, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women obsessively fixated on motherhood; another envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as similar to being stuck in a horror film. Interestingly, she met Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up appearing in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a religious event with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her career, she notes, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, continuing amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”

Rising Success

Anyone who questioned regarding her then will likely be regretting it today. In what she labels a “incredibly circular” development, she appears to created her dream vehicle. Previously she shared a clip called on LA life on social media, in which she parodied film promos (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Now, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a series about Angelenos juggling the perks of digital stardom (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled criminal, and perhaps becoming a unreliable pariah). It would be easy to create a program about digital influence that was horribly idealized—or, more problematic, one that belittled at its subjects. This show avoids both, making for a portrait of affluent young adult existence that’s candid about the chaos and the appeal.

Balanced Perspective

“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