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The star appears on the video call and at once begins an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she exclaims, sounding genuinely apologetic. She is only slightly late, she feels compelled to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Fortunately, in this context, that’s precisely what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s pretty predictable. Anyone familiar with the boldly openly gay and brash movie titled Bottoms—that she co-wrote with Emma Seligman and starred in alongside her friend The Bear’s standout—can be aware that she holds much to discuss, ranging from on gender, intimacy, or the merits of forming a high-school brawl society. Plus, after watching the new seasonal HBO series titled I Love LA, it is clear that the star has additional thoughts about the struggles of Gen Z life (At 30, Sennott serves as a bridge to younger audiences, straddling eras adept for straddling both generations).

Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction

Parallels to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being a fan, citing it together with Sex and the City, the acclaimed comedy and Donald Glover’s series as guides for the project, which follows the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally and fledgling talent manager Sennott’s character. Perhaps, the most significant influence on the moodboard belonged to the HBO series, the show focusing on a rising Hollywood star succeeding in a corrupt Hollywood (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and chose to add a fresh perspective on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she notes. The idea for the series came—to some extent—from personal, initially fractious, move to Tinseltown and from the saturn return, a popular event for astrology heads. It was an era that included her learn major life lessons, in her career and individually. “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 resembled a series of extreme challenges…”

Humble Origins

Raised in the East Coast, Sennott began writing and performing stand-up while studying performance at a prestigious arts school. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “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, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and sharing uproarious (and decidedly) weird online content online. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, depicted a group of women obsessively drawn to having babies; a different one portrayed being employed at the brand Hollister as akin to being caught in a thriller. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ultimately featuring in her directorial debut, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a funeral gathering with shades of the intense thriller. A recurring idea of her journey, she explains, has been people her own age supporting her, rather than the industry at large. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, stating with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Career Breakthrough

Individuals who had doubts regarding her earlier will certainly be regretting it now. In what she labels a “incredibly circular” development, she has manifested an ideal role. Previously she posted a clip named “it’s LA” online, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a show about Angelenos managing benefits of digital stardom (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being labeled as being a drug-addled stealer, and possibly becoming a risky pariah). It would be tempting to create a program about internet celebrity that was extremely aspirational—or, more problematic, one that punched down at the characters. This show steers clear of each, making for a portrait of privileged millennial life that’s frank about the chaos and the appeal.

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 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