The actress and writer exploring her hilarious show portraying that chaotic allure of younger generation life

The star joins the digital interview and right away begins an excuse. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she states, appearing genuinely regretful. Despite being only a couple of minutes late, she wants to justify. “My phone conversations always run long.” I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, in this context, this is exactly what you want to experience. Additionally, it’s pretty unsurprising. Those who have seen her unapologetically queer and brash project titled Bottoms—which she penned with Emma Seligman and starred in alongside her friend the talented actress—can be aware that Sennott possesses much to share, whether about identity, intimacy, or the appeal of forming a youth fight club. Plus, by the end her latest seasonal show I Love LA, it becomes obvious that she has additional insights on the darker side of Gen Z life (At 30, she serves as an honorary member for this generation, a tale-end millennial with a knack for bridging different age groups).

Guiding Lights and Artistic Direction

Likenesses to Lena Dunham’s Girls can’t be avoided and Sennott admits to being an admirer, referencing the show together with Sex and the City, Insecure and Donald Glover’s series as inspirations for her series, which tracks the journey of online personality Tallulah and close companion and aspiring agent portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the largest spot on concept was reserved for the HBO series, that show depicting a rising celebrity succeeding in a corrupt entertainment industry (choice quote: “nobody’s happy in this town except for the losers”). Sennott discovered it amid lockdown, became “captivated”, and chose to create a new version on it “targeting women and LGBTQ+ viewers”.

“I sought to highlight online platforms as the new industry, since my professional journey launched there,” she explains. The idea for this project originated—to some extent—from personal, originally rocky, transition to Los Angeles and from the saturn return, a popular phenomenon for followers. That period marked a time that saw her learn significant insights, in her career and personally. “During my younger years, I was chaotic, often breaking down in public,” she admits. “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 …”

Starting Out

Brought up in New England, the star commenced developing and showcasing humor while pursuing performance at NYU’s Tisch. “I went through all the proper channels to try to perform, and they weren’t gelling,” she states. “Auditions for university comedy troupes led to universal rejection. 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, taking the stage at live shows with her friend and sharing uproarious (and distinctly) unconventional online content digitally. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed a group of women fetishistically fixated on having babies; another portrayed working at the preppy clothing store Hollister as akin to being stuck in a thriller. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through the university’s film scene and ended up starring in her initial project, Shiva Baby, a stressful film set at a funeral gathering with echoes of the Safdie brothers’ movie. A recurring idea of her path, she notes, has been people her own age supporting her, instead of traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Definitely not them”, she confirms, stating amusedly: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”

Career Breakthrough

Those who had doubts about her then will surely be regretting it currently. In what she describes as a “wild, full-circle” development, she has achieved the perfect project. A few years back she uploaded content titled about Los Angeles on the internet, in which she mocked film promos (“Substance abuse is rampant here”). Now, she’s executive producer (with Emma Barrie) of a series about city dwellers managing advantages of internet fame (such as celebrating at Elijah Wood’s house) with downsides (your associate being suspected of being a intoxicated criminal, and possibly becoming a unreliable persona non grata). One might easy to create a program about online fame that was extremely aspirational—or, worse, one that belittled at the characters. The series does neither, creating a representation of privileged twentysomething living that’s candid about the mess and the appeal.

Balanced Perspective

“Numerous series present younger generations and digital culture in a derogatory manner,” 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

Carrie Clark
Carrie Clark

Eva is een ervaren digital marketeer en contentstrateeg, gespecialiseerd in het vertalen van complexe technologie naar praktische bedrijfsstrategieën.