The comedic talent discussing her hilarious series portraying the chaotic appeal of younger generation lifestyle
The performer enters the video call and immediately launches into an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding truly regretful. She is only slightly late, she feels compelled to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Thankfully, in this context, this is exactly what you want to hear. Besides, it’s pretty expected. Viewers who have seen the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—that Sennott penned with Emma Seligman and featured in with close companion The Bear’s standout—would already know that Sennott has plenty to discuss, ranging from on roles, sex, or the merits of forming a teen fight club. And, by the end the new eight-part program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries even more perspectives on the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she represents a bridge for this generation, a tale-end millennial with a knack for straddling millennials and Gen Z).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to the iconic series Girls are inevitable and Sennott admits to being a fan, citing the show alongside Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as guides for her series, which tracks the journey of an influencer Tallulah and her friend and new talent manager Maia. Notably, the largest influence on the moodboard went to the HBO series, the show focusing on an emerging Hollywood star making his way in a corrupt Hollywood (memorable line: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose to put her own twist 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 notes. The inspiration for I Love LA came—in part—from her own, initially difficult, transition to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about event for enthusiasts. It was an era that saw her understand major insights, in her career and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”
Starting Out
Raised in New England, the star began developing and showcasing stand-up while pursuing theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” 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 took matters into her own hands, performing at live shows with Edebiri and uploading uproarious (and decidedly) weird skits on the internet. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women fetishistically obsessed with having babies; a different one envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as akin to being stuck in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and ultimately appearing in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with hints of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her path, she explains, has been people her own age offering opportunities, instead of established gatekeepers. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, adding with a laugh: “They don’t want us to win.”
Career Breakthrough
Individuals who questioned about Sennott previously will likely be kicking themselves currently. Through she labels a “wild, full-circle” story, she seems to have created her dream vehicle. Previously she uploaded content called about Los Angeles on social media, in which she parodied film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a comedy about LA residents balancing advantages of online celebrity (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being suspected of being a substance-abusing stealer, and perhaps becoming a unreliable persona non grata). It would be tempting to produce a series about internet celebrity that was horribly idealized—or, even less favorable, one that belittled at its subjects. The series steers clear of each, creating a portrait of affluent millennial living that’s honest about the chaos and the shine.
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 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