Add The California Post on Google A rising Netflix actor was left fighting for his life after a driver allegedly plowed into his car at more than 100 mph.
Clayton Conroy, 32, had landed a recurring role in Netflix’s “The Gringo Hunters” and had several new projects lined up when the horrific April 19 crash turned his life upside down, according to the Santa Cruz Sentinel.
Conroy was driving home after meeting friends at a Los Angeles bar when another vehicle struck him as he exited Interstate 10.
He was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center with a traumatic brain injury and fractures to his hip and shoulder.
Conroy—who was given a low chance of survival—underwent brain surgery and spent the next several months relearning how to walk, speak, read, eat, drink and shower.
“Summer turned out a lot different than I ever thought it would. Got hit by a guy going over 100. Had brain surgery. Was supposed to die,” Conroy wrote on Instagram alongside photos documenting his recovery.
“Spent my birthday in the hospital. Lost 20 pounds. Severed nerves in my arm and fractured bones in my leg. Still can’t walk.”
The actor told the Sentinel he remembers entering the exit lane and checking his rearview mirror moments before the impact.
“The road was looking as normal as it could, just lights on the road behind me,” he said. “I did, perhaps, notice certain lights approaching quickly. From there, I woke up in the hospital.”
Conroy spent a month at Cedars-Sinai before continuing cognitive, physical and occupational therapy outside the hospital and later staying with his parents in Sacramento.
He initially relied on a rollator to walk, then progressed to a cane and eventually began walking short distances without assistance.
“To watch your son at 32 relearn to do things he could do when he was 2 is just disheartening,” his mother, Britt Crennell, told the outlet.
The crash came just as Conroy seemed to be finding real success in his career after more than a decade in acting.
The Santa Cruz High School graduate played Padre Terry, an American Catholic priest, in “The Gringo Hunters,” which premiered in July 2025 and cracked Netflix’s top 10 non-English series.
California Highway Patrol officers arrested 19-year-old Anaheim resident Noor El Deen Amr Soror on Aug. 26 in connection with the wreck and charged him with felony reckless driving causing major injuries, the Sentinel reported.
Crennell said her son’s recovery could take as long as five years, but called him a “walking miracle.”
Conroy, meanwhile, hopes to eventually return to acting.
“Idk just don’t take anything for granted,” he wrote on Instagram. “Oh and friends + family will get you through anything. And justice isn’t given. You have to fight for it.”
