Joe Manganiello stunned by wife Sofia Vergara's 'unreal' birthday gift

Actress Sofia Vergara surprised her husband Joe Manganiello with a specially-commissioned piece of artwork from his favourite fantasy game for his birthday.

The Magic Mike star is a big fan of Dungeons & Dragons, so the Modern Family beauty decided to seek out one of the tabletop role-playing franchise's most iconic artists to create a one-of-a-kind portrait of Manganiello's character.

The birthday boy, who turned 41 on 28 December (17), has taken to Instagram to share a photo of his new prized possession and heap praise on Sofia for the thoughtful gift.

"How's this for unreal?," he captioned the image. "For my birthday this year my wife got (brand director Nathan Stewart) from @dndwizards to connect her to LEGENDARY Dungeons & Dragons artist Jeff Easley (who painted all of the covers of the books and game manuals I read and played growing up) and then hired him (without me finding out) to immortalize my D&D character #Arkhan in this oil painting! Three words... #shesakeeper".

The couple, which wed in 2015, celebrated Joe's birthday and the start of 2018 on a tropical vacation with a group of loved ones.

Sofia is known for teasing her man about his love for Dungeons & Dragons on social media, but she has helped Joe indulge in his favourite pastime by decking out his own games room in their Los Angeles mansion, where he regularly hosts his pals.

"He's a nerd!" she told E! News on the 2017 Emmy Awards red carpet. "The highlight of his life is to play Dungeons & Dragons."

"He comes together with like, eight friends," Sofia continued. "I do a spread of food. He has a dungeon room downstairs in our basement. It's spectacular. I decorated for him. I bring him food and he sits there for like, six or eight hours playing Dungeons & Dragons."