The actress and writer discussing the side-splitting series portraying the chaotic glamour of younger generation existence

The performer appears on the video call and at once begins an explanation. “I can’t believe I’m late!” she says, appearing really regretful. Although she's only a couple of minutes behind, she feels compelled to justify. “I have such a problem, because I’m a yapper on the phone. “Earlier calls made me late—I just can’t stop chatting!” Luckily, during an interview, this is precisely what you want to hear. Additionally, it’s quite unsurprising. Viewers who know her boldly LGBTQ+ and unapologetically crass movie Bottoms—that Sennott co-wrote with Emma Seligman and starred in with close companion The Bear’s standout—will be aware that Sennott holds plenty to share, ranging from about gender, intimacy, or the pros of creating a high-school brawl society. Furthermore, by the end her new eight-part program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star has additional perspectives regarding the challenges of modern youth (At 30, Sennott represents a bridge to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial skilled for bridging different age groups).

Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach

Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and the actress readily acknowledges an admirer, naming the show together with Sex and the City, Issa Rae’s show and Atlanta as guides for the project, which tracks the journey of online personality Tallulah and ally who is also new representative Maia. However, the most significant influence on creative vision went to the popular sitcom, that HBO sitcom depicting an up-and-coming Hollywood star succeeding in an often-seedy Hollywood (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it during COVID-19, became “hooked”, and decided to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.

“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she says. The concept for I Love LA emerged—to some extent—from firsthand, initially rocky, move to LA and from the saturn return, a popular phenomenon for enthusiasts. That period marked an era that saw her understand major insights, professionally and individually. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she recalls. “In my mid-20s, I moved to LA and got settled. And then I felt like everything started to just fall apart. It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Humble Origins

Brought up in Connecticut, Sennott began creating and acting humor while studying 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 explains. “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?”

Sennott decided to act independently, appearing at amateur nights with her friend and sharing uproarious (and decidedly) weird online content on the internet. A particular video, Baby Cult, depicted characters obsessively drawn to having babies; another envisioned being employed at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being trapped in a scary movie. Interestingly, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ultimately featuring in her first film, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a funeral gathering with hints of the intense thriller. The big theme of her career, she says, has been people her own age offering opportunities, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, adding with a laugh: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Rising Success

Individuals who were skeptical about Sennott previously will certainly be regretting it currently. As part of she calls a “astonishingly complete” story, she appears to created her dream vehicle. A few years back she shared content titled about Los Angeles on social media, in which she parodied film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a comedy about Angelenos managing benefits of digital stardom (such as partying at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your client being suspected of being a intoxicated stealer, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” pariah). It would be simple to make a show about online fame that was overly glamorous—or, even less favorable, one that mocked at those depicted. I Love LA steers clear of each, making for a depiction of advantaged twentysomething life that’s honest about the grot and the appeal.

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

Courtney Kelly
Courtney Kelly

A tech strategist with over a decade of experience in UK digital transformation and startup ecosystems.