The actress and writer on her hilarious comedy about that grotty allure of Gen Z lifestyle

The performer appears on the digital interview and immediately launches into an apology. “Apologies for the delay!” she exclaims, seeming truly apologetic. She is only slightly delayed, she wants to clarify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Thankfully, in this context, that’s precisely what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s fairly expected. Anyone familiar with the unapologetically LGBTQ+ and outspoken movie Bottoms—that she collaborated on with Emma Seligman and starred in with her friend The Bear’s standout—would already know that she holds much to say, ranging from on gender, intimacy, or the pros of forming a teen combat group. And, once you finish her latest eight-part program titled I Love LA, it becomes obvious that the star has additional thoughts on the darker side of young adulthood (At 30, she is a relatable figure to younger audiences, a tale-end millennial adept for bridging different age groups).

Inspirations and Creative Vision

Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls are inevitable and the actress is enthusiastic, citing the show alongside the HBO hit, Issa Rae’s show and Donald Glover’s series as influences for I Love LA, which tracks the travails of an influencer played by Odessa A’Zion and close companion and new talent manager Maia. Notably, the most significant spot on creative vision belonged to the HBO series, that show about an up-and-coming Hollywood star navigating in an often-seedy Hollywood (choice quote: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She discovered it throughout COVID-19, became “obsessed”, and chose 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 says. The concept for this project originated—in part—from her own, at first fractious, transition to Tinseltown and from the astrological phase, a much-talked-about event for astrology heads. This represented an era that involved her grasp major insights, professionally and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” she admits. “After relocating to Los Angeles in my mid-twenties, I found stability, only for things to crumble. It was almost like these biblical tests …”

Starting Out

Brought up in New England, Sennott began creating and acting comedy while enrolled in theatre 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. “I wondered why I was even there at all.”

Sennott seized control, taking the stage at amateur nights with Ayo and uploading hilarious (and very) bizarre comedy videos digitally. A particular video, titled Baby Cult, centered on a group of women intensely fixated on motherhood; a different one envisioned working at a trendy retail outlet as similar to being caught in a horror film. By chance, she met Emma through NYU’s movie community and ended up featuring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a tense comedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of Uncut Gems. The big theme of her journey, she explains, has been people her own age supporting her, as opposed to traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she repeats, stating humorously: “They don’t want us to win.”

Career Breakthrough

Individuals who had doubts about Sennott previously will certainly be regretting it today. As part of she labels a “astonishingly complete” turn of events, she has achieved her dream vehicle. In 2019 she uploaded a video named on LA life on social media, in which she lampooned film promos (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s a lead creator (with her partner) of a show about Angelenos balancing benefits of internet fame (such as celebrating at a famous actor’s house) with its pitfalls (your associate being suspected of being a drug-addled thief, and potentially becoming a “brand unsafe” outcast). It would be tempting to make a series about online fame that was extremely idealized—or, more problematic, one that mocked at those depicted. The series does neither, making for a portrait of advantaged millennial life that’s frank about the grot and the shine.

Balanced Perspective

“Many programs portray youth and online life with disdain and mockery,” she observes. “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

Chris Ellis
Chris Ellis

Lena Visser is a freelance writer and digital nomad exploring the intersection of technology and everyday life.