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The performer enters the digital interview and right away starts an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she states, sounding genuinely regretful. She is only a bit late, she feels compelled to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, during an interview, this is precisely what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s quite unsurprising. Those who have seen the unapologetically queer and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with the director and featured in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—will be aware that Sennott has a lot to discuss, ranging from on gender, sex, or the appeal of creating a teen combat group. Furthermore, once you finish her recent seasonal show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has additional perspectives on the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, Sennott is an honorary member to younger audiences, on the cusp with a knack for connecting millennials and Gen Z).

Influences and Storytelling Approach

The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott is enthusiastic, referencing it in addition to the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the journey of a social media star Tallulah and close companion who is also fledgling talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the biggest influence on creative vision was reserved for the HBO series, that show depicting an emerging celebrity succeeding in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and chose to put her own twist on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she says. The inspiration for this project originated—to some extent—from personal, at first rocky, move to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented an era that included her learn major life lessons, work-wise and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Starting Out

Raised in New England, Sennott started writing and performing humor while studying theatre at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she explains. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” 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 decided to act independently, performing at live shows with Ayo and posting uproarious (and decidedly) bizarre online content on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, followed characters intensely obsessed with pregnancy; another imagined working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as like being caught in a horror film. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ultimately featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her career, she says, has been peers supporting her, instead of traditional networks. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “They were not involved”, she confirms, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Anyone who questioned about Sennott earlier will surely be kicking themselves today. As part of she describes as a “astonishingly complete” development, she has achieved her dream vehicle. Previously she shared a video named about Los Angeles online, in which she mocked movie previews (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s a lead creator (with the co-writer) of a comedy about city dwellers managing advantages of internet fame (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with drawbacks (your associate being accused of being a drug-addled criminal, and potentially becoming a risky outcast). It would be easy to make a series about digital influence that was extremely glamorous—or, more problematic, one that mocked at the characters. I Love LA does neither, resulting in a depiction of privileged young adult life that’s candid about the grot and the glamour.

Empathetic Approach

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