🔗 Share this article

Rachel Sennott joins the video call and at once launches into an explanation. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, sounding really regretful. Although she's only a bit late, she feels compelled to explain. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, during an interview, that’s precisely what one hopes to hear. Additionally, it’s quite unsurprising. Viewers who have seen the boldly openly gay and brash project titled Bottoms—which she penned with the director and appeared in alongside her friend Ayo Edebiri—will already know that she possesses plenty to say, whether on gender, relationships, or the pros of starting a teen combat group. Plus, after watching the new seasonal program titled I Love LA, viewers realize that the star holds further insights regarding the struggles of young adulthood (Now in her thirties, she is a bridge to younger audiences, straddling eras with a knack for straddling millennials and Gen Z).

Inspirations and Artistic Direction

The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s groundbreaking show naturally arise and Sennott readily acknowledges an admirer, referencing the show together with the classic series, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as influences for her series, which follows the struggles of a social media star played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also aspiring agent Sennott’s character. Notably, the largest spot on concept belonged to Entourage, the HBO sitcom about a rising A-list actor making his way in an often-seedy Hollywood (choice quote: “only the unsuccessful find joy here”). Sennott began viewing it throughout COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and chose to create a new version on it “with female and queer audiences in mind”.

“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 originated—to some extent—from firsthand, originally fractious, move to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a popular event for followers. That period marked a phase that included her understand major truths, in her career 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. “The struggles felt almost mythic in scale…”

Humble Origins

Raised in the East Coast, the star began creating and acting stand-up while enrolled in performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” she states. “Every campus humor group turned me down after tryouts.” I tried out for all the NYU plays and didn’t make it into any of them. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

Sennott took matters into her own hands, taking the stage at amateur nights with Edebiri and sharing hysterical (and very) weird online content online. One, titled Baby Cult, centered on several females fetishistically obsessed with having babies; another portrayed being employed at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being stuck in a thriller. Interestingly, she connected with Seligman through campus film circles and ended up featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, an anxious dramedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of the Safdie brothers’ movie. The central motif of her journey, she explains, has been peers offering opportunities, rather than the industry at large. So the old guard wasn’t helpful? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, continuing humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Manifesting Dreams

Those who were skeptical regarding her earlier will likely be feeling foolish now. In what she describes as a “astonishingly complete” story, she appears to created an ideal role. In 2019 she uploaded content titled “it’s LA” online, in which she mocked Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Years later, she’s executive producer (with the co-writer) of a series about city dwellers balancing advantages of online celebrity (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with downsides (your client being labeled as being a drug-addled thief, and possibly becoming a unreliable persona non grata). It would be simple to create a show about digital influence that was horribly glamorous—or, more problematic, one that mocked at the characters. The series steers clear of each, creating a representation of affluent millennial existence that’s candid about the chaos 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