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Rachel Sennott enters the video call and at once begins an apology. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she states, sounding truly apologetic. She is only a couple of minutes delayed, she wants to clarify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, in this context, this is precisely what one hopes to experience. Moreover, it’s fairly predictable. Viewers familiar with the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass movie titled Bottoms—which she penned with her creative partner and starred in with her friend Ayo Edebiri—can be aware that she has a lot to share, be it about identity, sex, or the appeal of starting a teen combat group. Furthermore, after watching the recent seasonal show titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star holds further insights about the challenges of Gen Z life (As a millennial, Sennott represents an honorary member of the gang, straddling eras skilled for bridging millennials and Gen Z).

Influences and Creative Vision

The comparisons to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being enthusiastic, citing it together with the HBO hit, Insecure and Atlanta as influences for her series, which follows the journey of online personality Tallulah and close companion who is also new representative Maia. Perhaps, the biggest influence on the moodboard went to the HBO series, that show focusing on an up-and-coming Hollywood star navigating in a gritty LA scene (memorable line: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it throughout the pandemic, became “hooked”, and resolved to add a fresh perspective on it “for the girls and the gays”.

“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The idea for the series came—to some extent—from firsthand, originally rocky, transition to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a much-talked-about phenomenon for enthusiasts. This represented a time that included her learn significant life lessons, work-wise and in private life. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Humble Origins

Growing up in the East Coast, the star commenced writing and performing stand-up while studying theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she explains. “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.”

Sennott seized control, taking the stage at open mics with her friend and uploading hilarious (and distinctly) bizarre skits on the internet. One, titled Baby Cult, followed a group of women intensely fixated on motherhood; a different one portrayed working at a trendy retail outlet as like being caught in a horror film. In a neat twist of fate, she met Seligman through the university’s film scene and ultimately featuring in her first film, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful comedy set at a religious event with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her path, she says, has been peers supporting her, instead of established gatekeepers. Does that mean bypassing the usual powers? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, continuing humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Career Breakthrough

Anyone who were skeptical regarding Sennott then will surely be feeling foolish now. In what she labels a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has created an ideal role. Previously she shared content titled about Los Angeles online, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a show about city dwellers juggling advantages of digital stardom (such as partying at a famous actor’s house) with drawbacks (your friend being suspected of being a drug-addled criminal, and possibly becoming a risky pariah). Some could tempting to make a show about internet celebrity that was overly glamorous—or, worse, one that punched down at its subjects. The series does neither, creating a portrait of affluent millennial living that’s frank about the grot and the appeal.

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