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Rachel Sennott enters the online meeting and at once starts an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, seeming genuinely remorseful. Although she's only a couple of minutes delayed, she needs to explain. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Fortunately, in this context, this is precisely what you want to hear. Moreover, it’s fairly expected. Viewers familiar with her boldly queer and unapologetically crass project titled Bottoms—which she collaborated on with the director and starred in alongside close companion Ayo Edebiri—will already know that Sennott possesses a lot to share, whether about gender, intimacy, or the pros of starting a youth combat group. Plus, once you finish the latest eight-part HBO series I Love LA, viewers realize that the star carries even more thoughts on the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she is a relatable figure to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial skilled for straddling both generations).

Guiding Lights and Creative Vision

Parallels to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and Sennott readily acknowledges enthusiastic, citing the show together with the classic series, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for the project, which follows the journey of a social media star Tallulah and her friend who is also fledgling agent Sennott’s character. Notably, the largest spot on the moodboard belonged to the popular sitcom, the HBO sitcom depicting a rising Hollywood star succeeding in a gritty LA scene (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott discovered it throughout lockdown, became “captivated”, and decided to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“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—partly—from firsthand, at first difficult, relocation to Tinseltown and from her saturn return, a frequently discussed phenomenon for astrology heads. That period marked an era that saw her learn significant truths, work-wise and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Starting Out

Raised in New England, Sennott began creating and acting comedy while pursuing theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

She seized control, appearing at open mics with her friend and uploading uproarious (and very) bizarre skits on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed characters obsessively fixated on pregnancy; a different one imagined working at the brand Hollister as akin to being caught in a thriller. By chance, she met Emma through NYU’s movie community and ultimately featuring in her directorial debut, Shiva Baby, an anxious film set at a funeral gathering with hints of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she says, has been people her own age supporting her, as opposed to established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, stating with a laugh: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”

Career Breakthrough

Those who had doubts about Sennott previously will certainly be feeling foolish now. Through she describes as a “astonishingly complete” development, she seems to have created the perfect project. A few years back she uploaded a clip titled about Los Angeles online, in which she lampooned film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos managing the perks of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being labeled as being a substance-abusing stealer, and possibly becoming a “brand unsafe” persona non grata). Some could simple to make a program about online fame that was extremely glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that punched down at the characters. This show avoids both, resulting in a representation of affluent millennial existence that’s frank about the chaos 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 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