Clayton Conroy, 32, is speaking out about his brutal recovery after a high-speed crash nearly killed him.
The rising Netflix actor was driving home from a Los Angeles bar on April 19 when another vehicle slammed into him as he exited Interstate 10. The impact, which came at more than 100 mph, left Conroy with a traumatic brain injury, fractures to his hip and shoulder, and severed nerves in his arm.
He was rushed to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where doctors gave him a low chance of survival. Conroy underwent brain surgery and spent the next month hospitalized, relearning the most basic functions of daily life.
“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 Santa Cruz High School graduate told the Santa Cruz Sentinel he remembers entering the exit lane and checking his rearview mirror moments before everything went black.
“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.”
After his month at Cedars-Sinai, Conroy continued cognitive, physical and occupational therapy outside the hospital before relocating to Sacramento to stay with his parents. He initially relied on a rollator to walk, then progressed to a cane, and eventually began managing 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 Sentinel.
The timing could hardly have been worse. Conroy had just landed a recurring role in Netflix’s “The Gringo Hunters,” playing Padre Terry, an American Catholic priest. The series premiered in July 2025 and cracked Netflix’s top 10 non-English series. Several new projects were already lined up when the crash derailed everything.
California Highway Patrol officers arrested 19-year-old Anaheim resident Noor El Deen Amr Soror on Aug. 26 in connection with the wreck. Soror was charged with felony reckless driving causing major injuries.
Crennell said her son’s full recovery could take as long as five years, but called him a “walking miracle.”
Conroy has turned to Instagram to process the trauma and share hard-won perspective with his followers.
“Idk just don’t take anything for granted,” he wrote. “Oh and friends + family will get you through anything. And justice isn’t given. You have to fight for it.”
Despite the uncertain timeline, Conroy hopes to eventually return to acting.