The star appears on the video call and at once starts an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming genuinely apologetic. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she wants to explain. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Fortunately, for a writer, this is precisely what is ideal to experience. Besides, it’s fairly unsurprising. Viewers familiar with her unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken project titled Bottoms—which she co-wrote with her creative partner and starred in together with collaborator the talented actress—will understand that she has plenty to discuss, ranging from about identity, sex, or the appeal of creating a teen brawl society. Furthermore, once you finish her recent seasonal program I Love LA, it is clear that she holds additional perspectives about the struggles of young adulthood (At 30, Sennott serves as an honorary member for this generation, a tale-end millennial with a knack for bridging different age groups).
Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show can’t be avoided and Sennott is an admirer, referencing it together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for her series, which details the struggles of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion who is also fledgling talent manager portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the biggest spot on the moodboard went to the HBO series, that show about an emerging celebrity making his way in an often-seedy Hollywood (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). She discovered it throughout lockdown, became “captivated”, and chose to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.
“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The concept for the series came—partly—from her own, initially fractious, move to LA and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about event for followers. That period marked a time that saw her understand major truths, in her career and in private life. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” 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 …”
Early Beginnings
Raised in the East Coast, Sennott began writing and performing comedy while enrolled in acting at a prestigious arts school. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she says. “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 decided to act independently, performing at live shows with her friend and posting hysterical (and decidedly) weird comedy videos on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted a group of women fetishistically drawn to having babies; a different one portrayed working at the brand Hollister as akin to being caught in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and ended up starring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. The big theme of her journey, she explains, has been contemporaries supporting her, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, adding humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”
Rising Success
Anyone who questioned about Sennott earlier will surely be kicking themselves today. In what she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she seems to have created the perfect project. In 2019 she uploaded content named on LA life on the internet, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s the co-showrunner (with her partner) of a series about city dwellers juggling the perks of online celebrity (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your associate being accused of being a intoxicated thief, and perhaps becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). One might easy to create a program about digital influence that was horribly idealized—or, more problematic, one that punched down at those depicted. This show does neither, making for a portrait of affluent twentysomething existence that’s honest about the grot and the glamour.
Balanced Perspective
“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” 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
