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The star enters the video call and immediately launches into an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, seeming really remorseful. Despite being only slightly behind, she wants to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, for a writer, this is precisely what one hopes to encounter. Additionally, it’s pretty predictable. Viewers who have seen her fearlessly openly gay and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—that she penned with the director and appeared in alongside close companion Ayo Edebiri—would already know that Sennott holds plenty to discuss, be it on roles, sex, or the appeal of forming a youth fight club. And, after watching her recent multi-episode HBO series I Love LA, it is clear that the star holds even more insights on the darker side of Gen Z life (As a millennial, she is a relatable figure of the gang, a tale-end millennial skilled for straddling different age groups).

Influences and Artistic Direction

The comparisons to the iconic series Girls naturally arise and Sennott is a fan, naming it in addition to the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for I Love LA, which tracks the travails of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and new agent portrayed by Sennott. However, the largest presence on the moodboard belonged to the HBO series, that HBO sitcom focusing on an emerging A-list actor navigating in a gritty entertainment industry (notable statement: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it amid lockdown, became “obsessed”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“My aim was to focus on digital fame over traditional entertainment, as my own beginnings were on the web,” she notes. The inspiration for the series emerged—partly—from firsthand, at first rocky, move to Los Angeles and from her cosmic event, a popular occurrence for followers. It was an era that saw her learn some big life lessons, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she says. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Starting Out

Brought up in the East Coast, Sennott started creating and acting humor while pursuing performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “It left me questioning my purpose and place.”

She decided to act independently, appearing at live shows with Ayo and posting hilarious (and very) unconventional online content online. One, titled Baby Cult, followed several females obsessively obsessed with pregnancy; a different one imagined working at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being caught in a thriller. By chance, she encountered Emma through NYU’s movie community and eventually appearing in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a religious event with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The big theme of her path, she says, has been contemporaries offering opportunities, rather than the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, adding amusedly: “Our victory isn’t their goal.”

Career Breakthrough

Individuals who had doubts about her earlier will surely be kicking themselves currently. In what she calls a “astonishingly complete” development, she has achieved an ideal role. Previously she shared a video called “it’s LA” on social media, in which she parodied film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a show about Angelenos juggling the perks of online celebrity (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being accused of being a intoxicated criminal, and possibly becoming a unreliable outcast). One might easy to create a show about internet celebrity that was horribly aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at its subjects. I Love LA does neither, creating a depiction of privileged millennial life that’s frank about the mess and the glamour.

Nuanced Portrayal

“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