Rachel Sennott

Rachel Anne Sennott (born September 19, 1995) is an American actress and comedian. She is best known for her online comedy television series Ayo and Rachel Are Single with Ayo Edebiri and for starring as Danielle in the film Shiva Baby (2020).

Sennott became interested in comedy as a freshman in college. She studied acting at NYU Tisch and graduated in 2017. During college she continued to perform comedy at open mic nights, as well as acting in student films, including the lead role of Danielle in the 2017 short film version of Emma Seligman's Shiva Baby. She reprised this role in the 2020 feature film adaptation. In 2018, feeling out of control of her fledgling career, she turned to Twitter comedy, writing short jokes and tweeting multiple in a day, creating her own voice.

She told Nylon that she did not enjoy the Manhattan open mic scene, feeling that people were laughing at her rather than with her, and quickly moved into the alt scene with a regular gig on It's A Guy Thing. She then developed her own shows in 2018, Puke Fest and Ur Gonna Slp Rlly Well Tonight. Her distinct comedic voice, a "messy" persona often complaining about dating and the economy, quickly became popular in the alt scene. In 2019, she was named one of the six best comedians of the alt scene on lists from both Time Out New York and Pop Dust, citing her unique satirical takes on aspects of millennial life and culture.

On television, Sennott has starred in HBO's High Maintenance and plays Jackie Raines on Call Your Mother. She is also developing Comedy Central series with Ayo Edebiri, and their shows Ayo and Rachel Are Single and Taking the Stage began airing on the network in 2020. She also appears with Edebiri and other comedians on the web comedy-documentary series Speak Up, seeking to amplify female voices about working in comedy. In film, she has starred in the 2020 feature films Tahara as Hannah Rosen and Shiva Baby as Danielle. Both films focus on queer Jewish coming of age narratives at funeral services, though Sennott is neither queer nor Jewish.

In the lead role of Danielle in Shiva Baby, which premiered at SXSW and TIFF in 2020, Sennott's performance was highlighted in several reviews. Sennott was named one of the seventeen best performances of TIFF 2020 by Seventh Row and won the Rising Star award at the Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival.