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Rachel Sennott joins the online meeting and immediately starts an explanation. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, sounding really regretful. Although she's only a bit behind, she needs to clarify. “My phone conversations always run long.” “Previous discussions went over, and I realized I talk too much!” Luckily, in this context, this is precisely what one hopes to encounter. Moreover, it’s pretty expected. Viewers who have seen the unapologetically queer and outspoken film Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and featured in with close companion The Bear’s standout—will be aware that she holds a lot to say, ranging from about gender, sex, or the appeal of creating a teen combat group. Plus, once you finish the latest seasonal HBO series I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she carries additional insights regarding the challenges of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she serves as a bridge of the gang, straddling eras with a knack for straddling millennials and Gen Z).

Guiding Lights and Storytelling Approach

Likenesses to the iconic series Girls can’t be avoided and the actress admits to being enthusiastic, referencing the show together with Sex and the City, Insecure and Atlanta as inspirations for her series, which details the travails of online personality Tallulah and close companion who is also aspiring representative Sennott’s character. Notably, the biggest influence on concept went to Entourage, the program about an up-and-coming A-list actor navigating in a corrupt entertainment industry (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). Sennott started watching it during the pandemic, became “captivated”, and resolved to put her own twist on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“I wanted to make a show where the internet, not Hollywood, was the industry, because my career started online,” she explains. The inspiration for this project came—to some extent—from her own, originally difficult, move to LA and from her astrological phase, a popular event for followers. This represented an era that included her learn some big insights, work-wise and individually. “My twenties began with constant public emotional outbursts and disorganization,” she recalls. “Settling in LA during my mid-twenties brought calm, but soon everything unraveled.” “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Starting Out

Growing up in New England, the star began writing and performing comedy while pursuing performance at New York University (NYU) Tisch School of the Arts. “Despite trying every conventional route, I couldn’t find my footing,” she says. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” “None of the university plays cast me either.” “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

She decided to act independently, taking the stage at amateur nights with her friend and uploading hysterical (and very) unconventional online content on the internet. One, Baby Cult, followed characters fetishistically fixated on motherhood; another imagined working at the brand Hollister as like being caught in a horror film. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through the university’s film scene and ended up appearing in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, a stressful dramedy set at a Jewish wake with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her career, she says, has been peers offering opportunities, rather than established gatekeepers. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she emphasizes, continuing humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Rising Success

Those who were skeptical regarding Sennott then will surely be kicking themselves today. Through she describes as a “incredibly circular” turn of events, she has manifested her dream vehicle. Previously she posted a clip titled “it’s LA” on the internet, in which she lampooned Hollywood trailers (“I’m addicted to drugs – we all are”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a comedy about Angelenos balancing advantages of online celebrity (such as socializing at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being accused of being a substance-abusing stealer, and perhaps becoming a risky outcast). It would be tempting to create a program about internet celebrity that was overly aspirational—or, worse, one that mocked at its subjects. This show avoids both, resulting in a portrait of advantaged twentysomething living that’s honest about the chaos and the glamour.

Empathetic Approach

“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