Rachel Sennott appears on the video call and at once launches into an apology. “Oh my God – I’m sorry!” she says, sounding genuinely apologetic. Despite being only a bit late, she needs to justify. “I tend to talk too much during calls. I had two calls before this, and I’m like, I’ve gotta stop talking!” Luckily, for a writer, this is precisely what one hopes to experience. Besides, it’s quite expected. Anyone who have seen the unapologetically queer and unapologetically crass project Bottoms—which she penned with the director and starred in alongside collaborator Ayo Edebiri—would be aware that she possesses a lot to discuss, whether about gender, sex, or the appeal of forming a teen fight club. Plus, once you finish her recent multi-episode program I Love LA, it is clear that she holds further insights regarding the darker side of modern youth (Now in her thirties, she is a bridge of the gang, on the cusp with a knack for straddling both generations).
Influences and Storytelling Approach
The comparisons to Lena Dunham’s Girls naturally arise and Sennott admits to being an admirer, naming the show alongside the HBO hit, the acclaimed comedy and Atlanta as inspirations for her series, which details the struggles of online personality played by Odessa A’Zion and ally who is also aspiring agent portrayed by Sennott. Notably, the most significant spot on creative vision was reserved for Entourage, that HBO sitcom about a rising celebrity navigating in an often-seedy LA scene (notable statement: “happiness eludes everyone but failures in this city”). She began viewing it throughout lockdown, became “obsessed”, and resolved 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 concept for the series originated—in part—from personal, originally rocky, move to Tinseltown and from the cosmic event, a much-talked-about event for followers. That period marked a phase that involved her learn major truths, work-wise and personally. “In my early 20s I was so messy, crying in public everywhere, all the time,” 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 resembled a series of extreme challenges…”
Starting Out
Raised in Connecticut, Sennott started developing and showcasing comedy while pursuing theatre at NYU’s Tisch. “I followed traditional paths to get on stage, but nothing clicked,” 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?”
She took matters into her own hands, performing at amateur nights with her friend and uploading hilarious (and distinctly) unconventional comedy videos online. A particular video, Baby Cult, followed several females intensely fixated on having babies; a different one envisioned working at the brand Hollister as similar to being trapped in a scary movie. In a neat twist of fate, she encountered Emma through campus film circles and ultimately featuring in her initial project, titled Shiva Baby, an anxious comedy set at a Jewish wake with hints of Uncut Gems. The central motif of her career, she notes, has been contemporaries giving her a shot, as opposed to traditional networks. So, not the gatekeepers, then? “Not the gatekeepers”, she repeats, adding humorously: “They prefer we don’t succeed.”
Rising Success
Those who were skeptical about Sennott earlier will certainly be kicking themselves now. In what she calls a “wild, full-circle” development, she seems to have achieved her dream vehicle. In 2019 she uploaded content named “it’s LA” online, in which she parodied Hollywood trailers (“Everyone’s hooked on something”). Six years on, she’s executive producer (with her partner) of a series about LA residents juggling the perks of online celebrity (such as socializing at Elijah Wood’s house) with its pitfalls (your client being labeled as being a substance-abusing thief, and possibly becoming a unreliable outcast). One might simple to produce a series about digital influence that was overly glamorous—or, worse, one that mocked at the characters. This show steers clear of each, resulting in a representation of advantaged young adult existence that’s honest about the chaos and the shine.
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 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
