Short answers, pulled from the story.
George Lucas first mentioned Padmé Amidala in the 1983 film Return of the Jedi. Leia Organa tells Luke Skywalker that she has faint memories of her mother, who turns out to be Luke's mother as well.
Natalie Portman was selected after auditions involving over two hundred actresses. She was eighteen at the time when filmmakers auditioned over two hundred actresses for the role before selecting Natalie Portman.
Padmé's garments were displayed at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising in Los Angeles in 2005. Her costumes were influenced by fashions from Japan, Mongolia, Tibet and other countries.
Padmé returns in Attack of the Clones which is set ten years after The Phantom Menace. She now represents Naboo in the Galactic Senate and leads a faction opposed to the Military Creation Act.
She is voiced by Catherine Taber in the series. Padmé appears in the 2008 animated film The Clone Wars which serves as a pilot episode for the television series of the same name.