Understanding how molecular structure impacts the shapes of potential energy surfaces and prospects for nonadiabatic photochemical dynamics is critical for predicting and controlling the chemistry of molecular excited states. Ultrafast transient absorption spectroscopy was used to interrogate photoinduced, nonadiabatic 6 pi cyclization of a collection of ortho-terphenyls (OTP) modified with alkyl substituents of different sizes and electron-donating/with-drawing character positioned on its central and pendant phenyl rings. OTP alkylated at the 4,4" and 4',5' positions of the pendant and central rings, respectively, exhibiting biphasic excited-state relaxation; this is qualitatively similar to relaxation of OTP itself, including a fast decrease in excited-state absorption (tau(1) = 1-4 ps) followed by formation of metastable cydized photoproducts (tau(2) = 3-47 ps) that share common characteristic spectroscopic features for all substitutions despite variations in chemical nature of the substituents. By contrast, anomalous excited-state dynamics are observed for 3',6'dimethyl-OTP, in which the methyl substituents crowd the pendant rings sterically; time-resolved spectral dynamics and low photochemical reactivity with iodine reveal that methylation proximal to the pendant rings impedes nonadiabatic cyclization. Results from transient measurements and quantum-chemical calculations are used to decipher the nature of excited state relaxation mechanisms in these systems and how they are perturbed by mechanical, electronic, and steric interactions induced by substituents.