The actress and writer discussing the uproarious series about that chaotic allure of Gen Z lifestyle

The star enters the video call and at once begins an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, seeming genuinely apologetic. She is only a couple of minutes late, she wants to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, in this context, this is just what is ideal to experience. Besides, it’s quite expected. Anyone who know the fearlessly LGBTQ+ and brash project titled Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with the director and appeared in with collaborator The Bear’s standout—can understand that Sennott possesses a lot to say, be it on gender, relationships, or the appeal of forming a youth combat group. Plus, after watching the recent multi-episode show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries additional thoughts regarding the darker side of modern youth (At 30, she represents an honorary member to younger audiences, on the cusp adept for straddling millennials and Gen Z).

Influences and Storytelling Approach

The comparisons to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott is a fan, citing it alongside the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as influences for the project, which tracks the travails of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and aspiring representative portrayed by Sennott. Perhaps, the biggest influence on creative vision was reserved for Entourage, that program about an emerging celebrity making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). She began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “hooked”, and decided to create a new version on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she notes. The concept for I Love LA came—partly—from personal, originally rocky, transition to Los Angeles and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about occurrence for astrology heads. That period marked an era that saw her understand some big life lessons, in her career and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “It resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Early Beginnings

Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott began creating and acting comedy while pursuing acting at a prestigious arts school. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “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.”

She took matters into her own hands, appearing at live shows with Ayo and uploading hilarious (and very) unconventional skits digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically fixated on motherhood; another envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being caught in a horror film. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a tense dramedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her journey, she says, has been people her own age offering opportunities, instead of established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “They were not involved”, she confirms, continuing humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”

Career Breakthrough

Individuals who were skeptical regarding her then will surely be regretting it currently. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has manifested the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded a clip called “it’s LA” on social media, in which she parodied movie previews (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with Emma Barrie) of a show about LA residents juggling advantages of digital stardom (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your client being accused of being a substance-abusing criminal, and potentially becoming a risky pariah). One might easy to create a show about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. I Love LA does neither, creating a representation of affluent young adult life that’s frank about the grot and the shine.

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 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

Ian Benson
Ian Benson

A Berlin-based tech journalist and lifestyle blogger with over a decade of experience covering digital innovation and urban living.