Pass a list to a function to act as multiple arguments

In a function that expects a list of items, how can I pass a Python list item without getting an error?

my_list = ['red', 'blue', 'orange']
function_that_needs_strings('red', 'blue', 'orange') # works!
function_that_needs_strings(my_list) # breaks!

Surely there must be a way to expand the list, and pass the function 'red','blue','orange' on the hoof? I think this is called ‘unpacking’.